In Vitro Vitamin C Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity, Cytotoxicity and Anti-Cancer Activity of Methanolic Urtica dioica L. Leaf Extract as a Food Supplement

Year 2024, Volume: 38 Issue: 1, 140 - 146, 30.04.2024

Serol Korkmaz , Hanife Banu Aydın , İrem Korkmaz

Abstract

Antioxidant capacity, cytotoxicity on two vital cell lines and the anti-cancer activity of methanolic Urtica dioica L. leaf extract (UDE) collected from Duzkoy, Giresun, Turkey were studied by determining safe concentration. The antioxidant capacity of the extract was expressed as vitamin C equivalency by spectrophotometric MTT assay. The cytotoxic concentration 50% was measured by the linearity between UDE concentrations (CC50) and the cell viability of non-cancer kidney cell lines (BHK-21, MDBK). The anti-cancer activity was conducted on human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) by determining inhibition concentration (IC50) on cell proliferation. The vitamin C equivalence of UDE increased linearly by increasing the concentration. The cytotoxic and non-toxic concentrations of UDE were determined on BHK-21 and MDBK with 15.71 mg/ml and 5.14 mg/ml of CC50 respectively. The extract inhibited the proliferation of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells with a 2.46 mg/ml of IC50. In conclusion, the present study tried to explain in detail the dose-dependent activity of Urtica dioica L. leaf extract. The dose-response results showed that Urtica dioica L. leaf extract could have low cytotoxicity, but potential anti-cancer activity at safe concentrations.

Keywords

anti-cancer, cytotoxicity, nettle, Urtica dioica L.

Ethical Statement

Not required.

Supporting Institution

This research received no external funding

Thanks

The authors thank Prof. Dr. Zafer Odabas, Prof. Dr. Hasan Kilic, and Prof. Dr. Aysen Gargili Keles (Head of the Basic Health Sciences Department and Research Laboratory, Marmara University). The extraction method used in this study is from a part of the MSc thesis of Hanife Banu Aydin supervised by B. Irem Omurtag Korkmaz.

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