Anastatica hierochuntica Extracts: Promising, Safe and Selective Anticancer Agents

Abstract

Background: Medicinal plants have been used for many centuries for their significant phytochemical reservoir, forming a foundation for many medicinal drugs. Conventional cancer therapy possesses a number of undesired problems including poor selectivity, severe side effects and resistance of cancer. Objective: There is a need for new anticancer drugs possibly from natural sources such as medicinal plants. A. Hierochuntica L. is rich with phytochemicals and is widely used in traditional medicine. Method: The antiproliferative activities of A. hierochuntica whole plant extracts (ethanol, methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform and water) were determined against a panel of cancer cells and normal primary dermal fibroblasts. The genotoxic effect of A. hierochuntica ethyl acetate on mice bone marrow cells was also evaluated. Genotoxic parameters included Chromosomal aberration, Mitodepression, Micronuclei formation and sister chromatid exchange. Results: A. hierochuntica exhibited antiproliferative activity against leukemia (K-562) and melanoma (A-375) cells. This is the first study to demonstrate the effect of A. hierochuntica ethyl acetate extract on cancer cell lines, found to be the most cytotoxic of all extracts. Furthermore, the chloroform extract showed notable anti-proliferative effects against most cancer cell lines tested. The extracts proved to be highly safe on human normal skin fibroblasts. Furthermore, A. hierochuntica ethyl acetate extract was also found to have limited genotoxic effects, with these changes seen at very high doses only. Conclusion: The results indicate that A. hierochuntica extracts have significant selective anticancer activity and that genotoxicity is only observed at very high concentrations.

In Vitro Induction of Apoptosis in Isolated Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells: The Role of Anastatica hierochuntica Methanolic Extract

“…Further, Table 2 illustrates several identified compounds with reported potency as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant [39], cytotoxic [40], antimicrobial [42] and anti-helminthic [43] agents. and antitumor effects [56]. Our results revealed that the crude extract was rich in glucosidic flavonoids (luteolin and apigenin), possessing structures that exhibit C2=C3 double bonds-see Figure 10-which were previously reported for their anticancer potential [40] and are in agreement with earlier information regarding the impact of flavonoids and other antioxidants [39].…”

“…In the treatment of cancers such as AML, resistance to cytotoxic chemotherapy becomes a major obstacle [55]. The natural extracts of A. hierochuntica have great antioxidant and antitumor effects [56]. Our results revealed that the crude extract was rich in glucosidic flavonoids (luteolin and apigenin), possessing structures that exhibit C2=C3 double bonds-see Figure 10-which were previously reported for their anticancer potential [40] and are in agreement with earlier information regarding the impact of flavonoids and other antioxidants [39].…”

Biological properties and identification of some active ingredients in Anastatica hierochuntica and Lepidium sativum, grown in Egypt

“…Efati et al [35] reported that L. sativum showed IC50 value of 17.8 μg/mL against SW480, HT-29 and Caco-2 colorectal cancer cell lines, also the cytotoxic activity of seed extracts of L. sativum was tested against human neuroblastoma (IMR-32), colon cancer (HT-15 and 29), and lung cancer (A-549) cell lines [28]. Al-Eisawi, et al, [36] observed the antitumor activity of all tested concentrations of A. hierochuntica against leukemia (K-562) and melanoma (A-375) cells. The antitumor activity of tested plants may be due to the presence of phytochemicals content in extracts.…”

Potential of CDC25 phosphatases in cancer research and treatment: key to precision medicine

“…The extensive array of bioactive chemicals found within this particular subject matter offers promising prospects for precise and focused interventions. The potential for enhanced cancer management lies in the utilization of the synergistic effects between natural medicines and conventional therapy (Al-Eisawi et al, 2022a;Al-Eisawi et al, 2022b;Eldesouki et al, 2022;Bou Malhab et al, 2023;Tarawneh et al, 2023).…”