Cytotoxic effect of Laurus nobilis leave extracts on bacterial growth and MCF-7 cancer cell line in vitro

Background: Medicinal plants play an important role in preventing as well as treating various types of diseases throughout the ages. There are many species of medicinal plants in the world used as herbal drugs. Laurus nobilis has been extensively used as an herbal plant in traditional medicine to treat numerous disorders. Objectives: The study tested the antibacterial properties of L. nobilis leaves extracts against various species of bacteria besides the cytotoxic effects of ethanol extract on the MCF7 cancer cell line. Methods: Different concentrations of ethanolic and aqueous extracts were tested for antibacterial efficacy against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus faecalis. Agar well diffusion method was used to determination of inhibition zone for all bacteria. Trypan blue and the MTT assay were used to investigate the cytotoxic effect of the ethanolic extract on the MCF7 cell line. Results: The aqueous extract revealed high inhibitory effect against gram-positive bacteria only. While the ethanolic extract showed inhibition zone on all the bacterial species were highest in gram-positive bacteria than gram-negative bacteria. The rate of proliferation in cells treated with ethanol extract shows a significant reduction depending on concentration; the more cells were decreased as the dose was increased. Conclusions: Our study concluded that Laurus nobilis could serve as a source of beneficial medications because of the existence of diverse phytochemical components. These phytoconstituents appeared to possess both antibacterial and anticancer activities and may serve as promising anticancer agent in the future.