Free radical scavenging and cytotoxic activity of five commercial standardized extracts (red wine, green tea, pine bark, polygonum and pomegranate)

Abstract

The objective of extract standardization is to obtain optimum and consistent quality of herbal preparations with defined components. This paper presents the radical scavenging effect of extracts against DPPH free radical (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and cytotoxic activity in vitro on the cervical cancer cell line HeLa of five commercial standardized extracts rich in phenolic compounds: red wine (Vitis vinifera), green tea (Camellia sinensis), pine bark (Pinus maritime), polygonum (Polygonum cuspidatum), and pomegranate (Punica granatum). It shows radical scavenging activity in the following order, according to their median effective concentration (EC<sub50): P. cuspidatum 85 µg/ml, C. sinensis 11 µg/ml, P. maritima 7 µg/ml, V. vinifera 6 µg/ml, P. granatum 1 µg/ml and for positive control, vitamin E was 21 µg/ml. The cytotoxic activity, according to their half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was: P. granatum 22 µg/ml, C. sinensis 13.4 µg/ml, P. cuspidatum 12.8 µg/ml, P. maritima 11 µg/ml, and V. vinifera 7 µg/ml and for positive control, Triton X-100 was 3 µg/ml. Our results indicate that low concentrations of red wine, pomegranate, and pine bark extracts have high radical scavenging effect as well as cytotoxic activity on HeLa cells. Therefore, these extracts may be an important source for phytopharmaceuticals development.

Key words: Radical scavenging, cytotoxicity, HeLa cells, standardized extracts.