Identification of Potential Anticancer Bioactive Compounds from Fractions of Alpinia monopleura Rhizome Extract

<b>Background and Objective:</b> Cancer is a malignant disease in body tissue where abnormal cells grow excessively and uncoordinated. Chemotherapy treatment still has weaknesses because apart from killing cancer cells, it also affects normal cells with fast proliferation rates, such as hair follicles, bone marrow and digestive tract cells, producing typical chemotherapy side effects. <i>Alpinia monopleura</i> has secondary metabolite content such as phenolic and flavonoid compounds as anticancer activity. This study aimed to investigate the cytotoxic activity of <i>A. monopleura</i> extract and its fractions and determine the phytoconstituents in the most active fraction against three distinct cancer-related protein targets. <b>Materials and Methods:</b> The <i>A. monopleura </i>extract and fractions were tested for cytotoxic against HeLa, MCF-7 and WiDr cell lines by using MTT assay. Then, the most active fraction was identified as its components by LC-HRMS and followed by molecular docking. <b>Results:</b> The most active cytotoxic effect was fraction 2 in HeLa cells, while fraction 4 in MCF-7 and WiDr. Several compounds have been successfully identified as contributing to their cytotoxic activity, proven by molecular docking investigation. It was found that compounds from fraction 2- Dehydroepiandrosterone, 5,7-dihydroxy-6-methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4H-chromen-4-one and 2-(3,4-dimethoxy phenyl)-5,7-dihydroxy-6-methoxy-4H-chromen-4-one-exhibited higher binding energies than Erlotinib, the native ligand with the cervical cancer target protein. <b>Conclusion:</b> Meanwhile, fraction 4 compounds had lower binding energy than the native ligands for each colon cancer and breast cancer protein target. Therefore, compounds from <i>A. monopleura </i>are promising for developing novel anticancer agents.