Anti-Proliferative Properties, Biocompatibility, and Chemical Composition of Different Extracts of Plantago major Medicinal Plant

Background: To study the anticancer activity of Plantago major, ethanolic, methanolic and acetonic extracts were assessed on HCT116, SW480 and HEK-293 as control. Methods: The cytotoxic activity, biocompatibility and toxicity tests were evaluated by MTT assay, hemolysis and Artemia salina - LD50 (on mice) tests, respectively. The analysis of essential oil compounds was performed by GC-MS analysis. Results: Our results showed that all of the extracts had the most antiproliferative properties on the HCT116 cell line. The root extracts of P. major were better than the aerial parts and IC50 value of ethanolic, methanolic and acetonic root extracts was 405.59µg/mL, 470.16 µg/mL and 82.26 µg/mL on HCT116 cell line at 72hr. Hemolysis degree of ethanolic extract of P. major aerial and root parts were determined approximately 1 % at 400 μg/mL for 4 hr. No significant disruption of the RBC membrane was observed. Also, at all concentrations of ethanolic extracts, all of the nauplii were alive and no toxicity was observed. One week after oral administration of different parts of P. major extracts, none of the animals died, even the mice treated with 2000 mg/Kg. The GC-MS analysis showed 2-Dodecen-1-yl(-)succinic anhydride (15.29%), Benzenemethanol,.alpha.-(1-aminoethyl)-2,5-dimethoxy- (11.83%), dl- Phenylephrine (7.51%), Nortriptyline (5.15%) as dominant compounds. Conclusions: The result of the toxicity of ethanolic extracts in MTT assay was repeated in hemolysis, the viability of artemia and LD50 assay, hence, these results confirmed P. major is an economic anticancer. Some of the compounds identified of the P. major essential oil have pharmaceutically important characteristics.