Antitumor and anti-angiogenic potentials of isolated crude saponins and various fractions of Rumexhastatus D. Don

BACKGROUND: Cancer, being the foremost challenge of the modern era and the focus of world-class investigators, gargantuan research is in progress worldwide to explore novel therapeutic for its management. The exploitation of natural sources has been proven to be an excellent approach to treat or minify the excessive angiogenesis and proliferation of cells. Similarly, based the ethnomedicinal uses and literature survey, the current study is designed to explore the anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic potentials of Rumex hastatus. Anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic activities were carried out using potato-disc model and chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay respectively. Moreover, R. hastatus was also assessed for antibacterial activity against Agrobacterium tumefaciens (tumor causing bacterial strain). The positive controls used in anti-tumor, anti-angiogenic and antibacterial activities were vincristine sulphate, dexamethasone and cefotaxime respectively. RESULTS: The crude saponins (Rh.Sp), methanolic extract (Rh.Cr) and other solvent extracts like n-hexane (Rh.Hex), chloroform (Rh.Chf), ethylacetate (Rh.EtAc) and aqueous fraction (Rh.Aq) exhibited notable anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic activities. In potato tumor assay, the chloroform and saponin fractions were observed to be the most effective showing 86.7 and 93.3 % tumor inhibition at 1000 µg/ml with IC50 values 31.6 and 18.1 µg/ml respectively. Similarly, these two samples i.e., chloroform and saponins also excelled among the entire test samples in anti-angiogenic evaluation exhibiting 81.6 % (IC50 = 17.9 µg/ml) and 78.9 % (IC50 = 64.9 µg/ml) at 1000 µg/ml respectively. In contrast, the antibacterial investigations revealed a negligible potential against A. tumefaciens. CONCLUSION: Based on our results we can claim that R. hastatus possesses both anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic potentials. In all of the solvent fractions, Rh.Chf and Rh.Sp were most effective against tumor and angiogenesis while having negligible activity against A. tumefaciens. It can be concluded that Rh.Chf and Rh.Sp might be potential targets in the isolation of natural product having anti-neoplastic action.

Evaluation of Antidiarrhoeal activity of extract from roots of Rumex hastatus (Family: Polygonaceae) on experimental animals.

Rumex hastatus is fairly common small shrub, growing on dry slopes, rocks and walls between 700-2500 m, typically in North Indian hill station. Roots of Rumex hastatus have been used in Ayurveda and other folk medicines for the treatment of diarrhoea. To justify its folklore, present study was undertaken to investigate the antidiarrhoeal activity of the ethanolic extract from the roots of Rumex hastatus (EERH). Preliminary phytochemical screening, acute toxicity study and antidiarrhoeal activity of were studied on castor oil induced diarrhoea and normal gastrointestinal models of rats at 100, 150 and 200mg/kg body weight. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the ethanolic extract from the roots of Rumex hastatus (EERH) results with the presence of anthraquinone glycoside, tannins, flavonoids etc., LD50> 2000mg/kg. The doses of EERH significantly decreased (P<0.001) the total number of diarrhoeal faeces. PI decreases doses dependentally (100, 150 and 200mg/kg orally) of EERH and was comparable with standard drug atropine sulphate. Conclusively, EERH has the antidiarrhoeal activity in experimental rats.