EVALUATION OF IN-VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF MONOCHORIA VAGINALIS LEAVES ON Hep2 AND HeLa CELL LINES

The entire plant (Monochoria vaginalis (Burm. f.) C. Presl.) except root is being used as a vegetable and has been used in traditional Indian system of medication for treating various diseases. But there are not many scientific data on the antioxidant and anticancer activity of M. vaginalis. Therefore, we aimed to determine the in-vitro antioxidant and anticancer activity of methanolic extract of M. vaginalis leaves. Standard biochemical methods evaluated the phytochemical investigation. In-vitro antioxidant activities of the methanolic extract of leaves were determined against DPPH, hydroxyl radical, reducing power assay, metal chelating activity, and hydrogen peroxide radicals. Also, we evaluated the anticancer activity of methanolic extract on Hep2 and HeLa lines by MTT calorimetric assay. Phytochemical analysis established the presence of rich secondary metabolites of total phenol (52.66 GAE mg/g), and flavonoids (305.88 QE mg/g). The methanolic extract of M. vaginalis exhibited strong antioxidant property (with IC₅₀ value) against DPPH (52.24 mg/ml), hydroxyl radical (76.08 mg/ml), reducing power (58.15 mg/ml), metal chelating activity (35.70 mg/ml), and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity (59.87 mg/ml). Also, the methanolic extract of M. vaginalis was found to be a potent anticancer activity (with IC₅₀ value) on Hep2 (31.20 ± 0.02 μg/ml) and HeLa (44.58 ± 0.42 μg/ml) cell lines. In conclusion, the methanolic extract of M. vaginalis leaves have strong antioxidant potential and cytotoxicity activity. So, M. vaginalis can be used as a good source of natural antioxidants for health benefits and can be an anticancer agent. However, further study is needed to isolation and characterization of active molecules, which may provide potential benefits source of natural antioxidants and anticancer properties.