PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDIES AND IN VITRO CYTOTOXICITY SCREENING OF PIPER BETLE LEAF (PBL) EXTRACT

Abstract

Piper betle leaves (Family: Piperaceae) have been used in Chinese and Indian folk medicine for centuries, and recently been proposed to be used as a chemopreventive agent because of its anti-oxidant activity. In the present paper, Piper betle leaves were standardized for stomatal index, vein islet and vein termination numbers, palisade ratio, UV fluorescence and different ash values. The Piper betle leaves are earlier reported to possess anticancer potential. Hence, the aqueous extract of the leaves was subjected to cytotoxicity studies on Hep2 cell line using MTT and SRB assays. The mean CTC was found to be 96.25 μ g/mL, which proved the potent cytotoxicity and hen ce, the probable anticancer property of the selected extract.