ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To detect the cytotoxicity and in vitro antiproliferative effects of the flavones compounds isolated from some Yao herbal medicines, and analyze the basic structure-activity relationship. METHODS: The cytotoxicity on normal cells and antiproliferative effect on tumor cells were tested by MTT reduction assay respectively. RESULTS: Among the 6 flavones, the Eriodictyol-7-O-a-D-glucoside, Naringenin-7-O-beta-D-glucoside, quercetin and quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucoside showed very low cytotoxicity to the two normal cells, Vero and MC cells, while the naringenin was high toxic to both of them. The eriodictyol was no toxic to Vero Cell but could affect MC cell at low concentration. The naringenin exhibited a wide-spectrum antiproliferative effect on all of the 7 tested cancer cell lines especially on the MCF-7 with low IC50 about 50 microg/ml. Among these cancer cells, the MCF-7 and HepG2 were more sensitive to the flavones compounds than the others. Both of them were inhibited by eriodictyol, quercetin and naringenin even at low test concentration. Furthermore, the antiproliferative effects of these compounds were concentration-related. CONCLUSION: Some of flavones compounds isolated from some Yao herb medicines showed high antiproliferative effect on cancer cells with low cytotoxicity on normal cells.
