Abstract

Jaceosidin, emodin and magnolol are natural compounds isolated from Chinese herbs and are reported to have anticancer properties; although a combination of natural anticancer drugs could increase the efficacy of anticancer activity. However, the combination of these compounds was examined by using MTT assay, cell cycle arrest, flow cytometry and western blot on melanoma A375. The results showed that the new combinations induced cell cycle arrest in G2 phase and apoptosis through Bcl-2 expression. Emodin enhanced the anticancer activity of jaceosidin and magnolol; as such, a combination of emodin with magnolol was more effective. These observations indicated that a combination of emodin with magnolol and jaceosidin enhanced anticancer activity through induced apoptosis by Bcl-2 expression, while a combination of emodin with magnolol was more effective than other combinations and could be considered further in future researches of melanoma.

Key words: Emodin, jaceosidin, magnolol, apoptosis, melanoma.