Abstract

There is a surge in the use of and research on plant-based remedies because of their unique chemical diversity, the emergence of resistance and the adverse effects of current drugs. The present study evaluated the anticancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential of crude extracts of Drimia altissima and Crinum macrophyllum bulbs, which are used as anticancer remedies. Hexane, dichloromethane and methanol crude extracts of the air-dried bulbs were screened on MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, CaSki, HeLa, PC3 and MRC5 cells at 200 μg/mL using the MTT viability assay. The DPPH and the egg-albumin denaturation assays evaluated the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential of these bulbs respectively. Cis-platin and doxorubicin were used as anticancer positive control drugs, whereas L-ascorbic acid and sodium dichlofenac were positive controls for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The D altissima methanol extract reported a percentage viability of 8.25 on Hela cells, whereas the C macrophyllum dichloromethane reported percentages of 6.12 and 4.30 on Hela and Caski cells, respectively. All the crude extracts reported much lower toxicities to the non-malignant MRC5 cells. The extracts exhibited concentration-dependent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. They also exhibited stronger anti-inflammatory inhibitions, whereas the hexane extracts reported 86.96±4.47% (C macrophyllum) and 90.47±0.94% (D altissima), which are comparable to the inhibition of the positive control drug of 93.72±0.30%.