Screening for Antitumor Activity of 11 Species of Indonesian Zingiberaceae Using Human MCF-7 and HT-29 Cancer Cells

Abstract

We have screened 11 important species of Zingiberaceae, used as spices and for medicinal purposes in Indonesia, for their antitumor activity using human HT-29 colon cancer and MCF-7 breast cancer cells. They were Amommum cardamomum, Curcuma aeruginosa, C. longa, C. mangga, C. xanthorrhiza, Kaempferia galanga, K. pandurata, K. rotunda, Z. aromaticum, Z. cassumunar, and Zingiber officinale. Ethanol extracts of eight species showed strong inhibitory effect on the growth of the cancer cells when evaluated using the colorimetric tetrazolium salt assay. Since curcumin, a yellow pigment isolated from C. longa, has shown its potential anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo studies and is currently undergone clinical trial in the US, we used an extract of C. longa as a comparison. Extracts of K. pandurata and Z. aromaticum had very strong inhibitory activity against the two cell lines similar to those of C. longa. However, curcumin was not detectable in the extracts of those two plants. The ethanol extracts of the active species had less effect on the growth of a non-transformed human skin fibroblast cell line (SF 3169). Microscopic examination of cancer cells exposed to extracts of active species showed a characteristic morphology of apoptosis. Further study on Z. aromaticum and K. pandurata, including identification of bioactive compounds and elucidation of mechanism(s) likely to be operating, has been carried out.