Abstract

Among the various known therapeutic effects of Plantago major (L.), a few recent studies have shown that preparations of the crude extracts of some plant leaves could prevent or regress the growth of certain tumours. In this study, the effect of P. major, an anticancerogenic, against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in mice was investigated. The animals were separated into five groups: two groups for control (HC, healthy control; TC, tumour control) and three groups for experiments E1 (25 μg/ml extract given after tumour inoculation), E2 (50 μg/ml extract given after tumour inoculation) and E3 (75 μg/ml extract given after tumour inoculation). Ehrlich ascites tumours (1x10⁶ cells) were injected intraperitonally into the mice’s of E1, E2, E3 and TC groups. P. major extract was given in three different concentrations for 10 days orally. Following the administration, all animals sacrificed and their intestine and colon tissues taken out then stained with haematoxilen-eosin for pathological investigations. Pathological findings stated out that P. major extract had inhibitory effect against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. Therefore, our results show thatP. major could be proposed as an effective agent for cancer prevention.

Key words: Plantain, experimental, anti-cancer, crude extract.