Abstract

Cancer is the major public difficulty and one of the top causes of death in prosperous countries. Conventional plants are precious source of novel cytotoxic agents and play a critical role in health concern. Due to its wide range of biological and pharmacological effects and lack of toxicity, curcumin and lutein were selected for this study. Curcumin and lutein were isolated from rhizomes of Curcuma longa and petals of Tagetes erecta. The isolated pigments were quantified spectroscopically and separated by thin layer chromatography. The active components of the pigments were further purified and identified by high performance liquid chromatography. In vitro cytotoxic activity of both extracts against Hep2 cancer cell lines were evaluated. Furthermore, the activities of both pigments in different concentrations against Hep2 cancer cell line were compared. The test sample showing cell viability of more than 97% at 0.078 mg/ml were considered to be less active at minimum concentration. The maximum viability of Hep2 cell line were 3.27% (curcumin) and 8.88% (lutein), respectively, which are most suitable to perform cytotoxic studies. This method suggests that it is suitable for the rapid screening of plant materials and also can be performed without any special sample pretreatment.

Key words: Cytotoxic, curcumin, lutein, Hep2 cells.