EVALUATION OF PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIMITOTIC POTENTIAL OF LAGENARIA SICERARIA FRUIT USING ONION ROOT MODEL

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Many of the cucurbitaceae plants traditionally reported to possess antitumor activity. The present study was carried out to evaluate the anticancer activity for different extracts of Lagenaria siceraria Fruit. The present research work had carried out on laboratory level assay to avoid the use of different animal models. Preliminary phytochemical tests of successive extraction of Lagenaria siceraria fruit powder had performed to find out the different chemical moieties as per standard procedures. Preliminary anticancer screening by exposure of different extracts on Onion Root model was carried out to find out the lead extract which showed the promising cell growth inhibitory activity. The antimitotic assay by onion root method was selected because this is easy to done and give fastest promising results. Onion was selected for the antimitotic assay which shows the root growth inhibition that compared with standard antimitotic drug (Colchicine100PPM and 100 PPM). n-butanol extract of Lagenaria siceraria fruit powder shows most promising anticancer activity than other extracts tested and control used. Further isolation of active moiety from n-butanol extract for anticancer activity by chromatographic techniques is almost completed.