Evaluation of antitumor activity of Caesalpinia Sappan Linn

Abstract

The aim of this study was to isolated and identified the phytoconstituents which are responsible for antitumor activity in Caesalpinia sappan L. The chemical constituents were isolated and identified by means of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques methods. Isolated components were tested for their antitumor activity against 3 different kinds of cancer : lung cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer. Two compounds were purified and identifed including sappanchalcone and 3-deoxysappanone B, in which sappanchalcone appeared to have stronger effects on antitumor than the second one. Sappanchalcone showed the strongest inhibition on cervical cancer cell line Hela with IC50 6.05±5.56 µg/mL. Whereas, 3-deoxysappanone B demonstrated the best effect on lung cancer cell line NCI H460 with IC50 10.09±2.62 ug/ml. However, due to the limitation of experiment’s scope and time, there were still many compounds which had antitumor ability in plant extract maintained unidentified. In general, the research’s results showed that Caesapinia sappan L. Could be a potent medicinal plant for treatment of cancer. Key words: Caesalpinia sappan L, antitumor, sappanchalcone, 3-deoxysappanone B.