Anti-proliferative effect of Thai watermelon leaf extracts on cervical and breast cancer cells

Abstract

Cervical and breast cancers are the most two common cancers and leading cause of women death. Major problems of treating these cancers with the existing chemotherapeutic drugs are the adverse side effect and drug resistance. Hence, in this study, the anti-proliferative effects of leaf extracts from six cultivars of Thai watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) were evaluated against cervical carcinoma C33A, HeLa and SiHa cells as well as breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells, in comparison to non-cancerous Vero cell. MTT results demonstrated the reduced viability of cancer cells exposed to leaf extracts, especially those from Zonya and King orange cultivars. Cancer cells showed smaller size and cell number was reduced while no such negative effect was observed in Vero cells. These results indicate the specificity of extracts against cancer over normal cells and possibility to develop these watermelon leaf extracts as the novel anti-cancer agents.