Assessment of the cytotoxic effect of aerial parts of Gazania rigens hexane extract on HRT-18 and MCF-7 cell line and chemical composition analysis using GC/MS and LC/MS

Gazania rigens are cultivated for their vividly colored flowerheads. The herb, belonging to the Asteraceae family, displays various classes of secondary metabolites, including terpenes, phenols and fatty acid derivatives. Antioxidant, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, and antimicrobial activities of the herb have been evaluated and have proven to benefit humans clinically specially in case of cancer affected people. Breast cancer is the second most frequent reason for female mortality, and the third most frequent reason in the world is colorectal cancer. A previous study stated the in vitro anticancer effect of the genus Gazania rigens on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell. N-hexane extract of Gazania rigens aerial parts was prepared by maceration, cold extraction methods and subjected to GC/MS and LC-MS analysis to characterize its constituents. In GC/MS, the total number of identified compounds were 2-pentadecanone, 6,10,14-trimethyl, hexadecanoic acid methyl ester, 11-octadecenoic acid methyl ester, methyl stearate hexanedioic acid, and bis(2-ethylhexyl) ester. LC/MS analysis revealed and confirmed the presence of lupeol. Based on the result, n-hexane extract was evaluated for its in vitro anticancer effect against the MCF-7 and HRT-18 cell lines using an MTT assay. Results from the MTT assay showed there is a significant cytotoxic effect for hexane extract against both cell line HRT-18 and MCF-7, the IC50 value for HRT-18 was 102.2±10 ug/ml, while the IC50 value for MCF-7 was 121.2±12 ug/ml.