Anticancer Activity of Steroid Alkaloids Isolated from Solanum aculeastrum.

Abstract

Solanum aculeastrum. Dunal is a medicinal plant that has long been used to treat various cancers and many other conditions in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. In this study, two steroid glycosides were isolated from the berries of this plant, which were identified as tomatidine and solasodine by spectroscopic techniques. Effects on cell growth of these compounds were investigated with HeLa, MCF7, and HT29 cancer cell lines. The IC₅₀ values confirmed that tomatidine and solasodine had the highest inhibitory effect on HeLa cells and the IC₅₀ of the combined compounds was lower than the value for solasodine and unchanged from that of tomatidine. However, the IC₅₀ values of the two compounds combined was also lower in HT29 and MCF7 cells than for the individual compounds. Both tomatidine and solasodine inhibited cell growth by blocking the cell cycle in the G₀/G₁ phase after 24-h exposure with an increase from 55.6% to 64.2% and 66.8%, respectively. Using annexin V–FITC/PI staining by flow cytometry, the compounds showed very low apoptotic indices.

Keywords:

• Anticancer
• apoptosis
• Solanum aculeastrum
• solasodine
• tomatidine