Vol. 3, Issue 11 (2015)

Author(s):
Seham S. El-Hawary, Rabab Mohammed, Sameh F. AbouZid, Mostafa E. Rateb and Ahmed M. Sayed

Abstract:
Medicinal plants have been used for decades for the treatment of different diseases. Solanum nigrum L is an important medicinal plant in many traditional health care systems. It has been used for the management of liver disorders, diabetes, infections, cancer, inflammations and peptic ulcer. In the present study, we screened the green unripe S. nigrum L fruits and leaves for their cytotoxic activity. The ethanolic extract of green fruits revealed a marked cytotoxicity against breast (MCF-7) and liver (HepG-2) cancer cell lines with IC50 of 12.7 and 16.6 µg/mL, respectively. This activity is related to the high content of steroidal glycoalkaloids in S. nigrum L unripe green fruits.