Abstract:
Study has been premeditated to appraise the anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities of a native medicinal
plant Saussurea hypoleuca Spreng root. Anticancer assays including MTT, Alamar Blue (AB), Neutral Red (NR) &
LDH were employed on root methanolic extract (RME) and all fractions to calculate % age of cell viability and cell
cytotoxicity. All fractions of plant root were tested for in vitro as well as in vivo anti-inflammatory assays by reported
methods. GC-MS analysis of n-hexane: chloroform fractions in column chromatography has shown isopropyl myristate,
hexadecanoic acid, 11-octadecenoic acid, Di-n-octyl phthalate, dioctyl ether, decanedioic acid, 1H-3a,7-Methanoazulene,
3,4-hexanedione and Tetracosapentaene. Percentage of cell viability in anticancer assays was significantly high in all
fractions. However, whole results were momentous with ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions owning to excellent profile
in evaluating cytotoxicity in each assay. COX-2 inhibition was calculated which was high in RME (68.69%), ethyl
acetate (56.52%), aqueous (55.21%) and chloroform fraction (53.47%). Carrageenan and formalin models were
developed on rats to investigate in vivo anti-inflammatory activity. RME (56.19%, 71.09%, 66.4%, 67.99%) and ethyl
acetate (51.36%, 64.97%, 55.63% & 61.01%) produced significant % age inhibition in dose dependent manner at 200
and 400 mg/kg doses respectively. All above findings direct that plant root holds strong anticancer and antiinflammatory activities.
