Abstract
The present study was designed to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic effect of methanol extract of aerial parts including stems, leaves and twigs of Aralia cachemirica and purified continentalic acid isolated from this extract against a panel of human cancer cell lines of varied tissues. Percentage of growth inhibition was evaluated by sulphorhodamine B assay. Purified continentalic acid showed moderate cytotoxicity against all the cell lines used. In contrast, the extract exhibited significant concentration dependant cytotoxicity against A-549 (lung), THP-1 (leukemia) and MCF-7 (breast) cell lines. This work highlights cytotoxic potential of this extract, which can further be explored for different constituents for their possible use autonomously or in combined manner in cancer therapy. The detailed analysis of their cytotoxicity has been presented in this paper.