Egyptian Journal of Genetics And Cytology
NAGLAA M. EBEED, SAWSAN M. ABDELMEGEED
Abstract
The antitumor action of propolis is of clinical interest because of the need for new anticancer treatment agents. The present investigation intended to extract and assess the chemical content, cytotoxic action, the growth inhibitory activity and anticancer capability of Egyptian propolis versus Chinese propolis. This was carried out using water extract (WE) and ethanolic extract (EE) on the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HEp-2) cell line and the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) assay of Drosophila melanogaster somatic cells against the direct genotoxicity of doxorubicin. EPWE, EPEE, CPWE and CPEE extracts analyzed by HPLC showed that there were sensible and various concentrations of phenolic compounds in both. Total phenolics were determined to be 18.83, 34.87, 39.29 and 180.89 g-1 by using EPWE, CPWE, EPEE and CPEE extracts, respectively. Chinese propolis ethanol extract (CPEE) have major concentrations of total phenolics and phenolic acids and contained high concentrations of rutin (188.90 g/mL). The study of the antiproliferative capacity of propolis extractors against HEp-2 cancer cell lines showed that all the studied propolis extracts induce suppression of cell growth except CPWE extract; it gave 100% cell viability. The great majority of the propolis are strongly cytotoxic against HEp-2 cell line with 500 μg/ml CPEE. Also, PEE is the most effective in inhibition of HEp-2 cell proliferation compared to PWE. In Drosophila assay, treatment with propolis extract and DOX carcinogenic agent led to a reduction in the frequency of recombination compared to the treatment with DOX alone either in the post- and pre-treatments. In general, PEE exhibited powerful anti-proliferative effects than PWE. The ethanol extract provided the highest protection against Doxorubicin (DOR) induced genotoxicity, a fact that supports their anti-cancer activity. The results demonstrate that PEE is a good source of a natural antitumor operator able to inhibit cancer cell proliferation.
* THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO DIA