In vitro cytotoxicity and antioxidant activities of five medicinal plants of Malvaceae family from Cameroon

The potential antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of extracts from five medicinal plants from Cameroon were evaluated in vitro on HepG-2 cells. The results showed the significant decrease of the viability of the cells in a concentration-dependent manner. According to the IC50 obtained, the extracts of S. acuta (461.53 +/- 0.23) and U. lobata (454.93 +/- 0.12) showed significant antiproliferative activity. At fixed concentration (250 mu g mL(-1)), extracts demonstrated higher antiproliferative activity (67.05%; 65.42%), (52.62%; 56.64%) and (32.98%; 36.85%) respectively during 24,48 and 72 h. Extracts of S. cordifolio and V. album demonstrated significant antiproliferative property after 48 h while S. rhombifolia exhibited weak cytotoxicity. The results of the antioxidant properties showed that theses extracts induced significantly increase of SOD, CAT and GsT activity after 48 h. Taken together, the results extracts showed that of S. acuta and U. lobata may be a promising alternative to synthetic substances as natural compound with high antiproliferative and antioxidant activities. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.