Assessment of cyto-protective, antiproliferative and antioxidant potential of a medicinal plant Jatropha podagrica

The present study is aimed to evaluate antiproliferative, antioxidant activity and in vitro protective effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of Jatropha podagrica. Total phenolics and flavonoids content was higher in seeds than leaves extract. The anti-proliferative effect on two tumoral cell lines A549 and PC12 was assessed by MTT assay. The cytotoxicity of the studied extract was also evaluated on young cerebellar granule cells. The investigation of the action mode of J. podagrica extract in protection of DNA damages, protein carbonylation and lipid peroxidation caused by hydroxyl radicals generated in Fenton's reaction exhibits an effective protection at low concentrations. In the presence of 100 μM of copper sulfate, Jatropha hydro-alcoholic extract showed no significant enhancing in the hydroxyl radicals generation and DNA fragmentation in vitro. These results suggest that extract of J. podagrica still acts as antioxidant even in the presence of free metal ions, but with less efficiency. The J. podagrica extract which showed significant antitumor activity against the A549 and PC12 cells deserves further research into the chemoprevention and treatment of cancer.