CYTOTOXIC COMPOUNDS AGAINST BREAST ADENOCARCINOMA CELLS (MCF-7) FROM PIKUTBENJAKUL

Pikutbenjakul, a Thai Traditional medicine preparation, is composed of five plants: Piper chaba fruit, Piper sarmentosum root, Piper interruptum stem, Plumbago indica root and Zngiber officinale rhizome. It is a balanced health preparation in Thai traditional medicine. From selective interviews of folk doctors in Southern Thailand, it was found that Benjakul was used as an adaptogen drug for breast cancer patients. It was give them before using cancer drug. Thus, the objectives of this research were investigating cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cell (MCF-7) of Pikutbenjakul preparation and its components extracts by using the SRB assay. The extraction method imitated by folk doctors used by maceration in ethanol and boiling in water. The results were found that the ethanolic extract of Piper chaba, Zingiber officinale and Pikutbenjakul showed high cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cell (ICso= 35.17, 31.15 and 33.20 mu g/ml, respectively) but water extract showed no cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cells. Two compounds [piperine and 6-shogaol as 7.48 and 0.54% w/w of crude extract] were isolated from the ethanolic extract of Pikutbenjakul by bioassay guide fractionation and were also tested for cytotoxic activity. It was found that piperine and 6-shogaol had cytotoxicity against MCF7 with IC50 value of 9.80 and 10.18 mu g/ml. These results can support using Pikutbenjakul to treat breast cancer patients of Thai folk doctors.