Cytotoxicity and anti-cancer activity of ancistrocline: A naphthyl iso-quinoline alkaloid extracted from the stem of Ancistrocladus heyneanus

Mixture of Naphthyl Isoquinoline alkaloids (NIQAs) were extracted in methanol from the stem of Ancistrocladus heyneanus. We report our initial attempt to study the cytotoxicity and anti-cancer activity of these NIQAs using Vero cell lines and HeLa cell lines. NIQAs were found to be non toxic to Vero cells (i.e. normal cell lines), as percentage viability was found to be more than 50% at all tried concentrations of Ancistrocline. Whereas, the percentage viability of HeLa cells at all concentrations of alkaloids extract was less than the Vero cells. Moreover, with increase in concentration of Alkaloids there was a decrease in viability of HeLa cells suggesting that NIQAs extracted from the only Indian species of Ancistrocladus heyneanus, has anti cancer property. Hence, NIQAs were separated using TLC and one of the TLC band was found to be consisting of molecular weight 421 by LC/MS, which was further identified as Ancistrocline by NMR. In previous studies, Ancistrocline is proven to have anticancer activity. So, we can infer that anticancer activity was due to presence of Ancistrocline as one of the alkaloid.

Author(s): Anil Kumar Karn, Roopa Dharmatti, Maheshwar Sharon and Madhuri Sharon

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