In vitro assessment of antimitotic, antiproliferative and anticancer activities of different sections of Cleistanthus collinus (Roxb.) Benth. Ex. Hook. F.

Abstract

Natural-derived chemicals, particularly secondary metabolites from plants, are gaining attention for their potential as innovative and less harmful anticancer treatments, advancing cancer therapy and developing new medicinal herbs. The present study aimed to investigate the antimitotic, antiproliferative, and anticancer activities of various extracts from the leaves, bark, and fruits of Cleistanthus collinus using the Allium cepa root tip assay, yeast cell model, and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against Henrietta Lacks (HeLa) and Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) cancer cell lines. For the MTT assay, crude methanol extract was used, while methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform, aqueous, and petroleum ether extracts were employed for the antimitotic and antiproliferative assays. In the antimitotic assay, the methanol bark extract exhibited the highest activity, with a mitotic index of 15±0.57% at 500μg/mL, significantly reducing cell division compared to the control (97±1.23%). The methanol bark fraction showed the strongest activity in the antiproliferative assay, with only 26.41±0.57% viable cells at 500μg/mL. The extracts reduced cell viability and increased cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner. The anticancer activities (half-maximal inhibitory concentration, IC50 values) ranged from 186.43±2.7μg/mL to 885.69±6.77μg/mL against the MCF-7 cell line and from 228.5±3.7μg/mL to 550.85±4.67μg/mL against the HeLa cell line, with the highest activity observed for the crude methanol extract of bark against MCF-7 cells. These findings suggest that methanol extracts of C. collinus could be a promising source of plant-based anticancer agents with antimitotic, antiproliferative, and antioxidant activities.