Skip to main content
Log in

Phytochemical profile of Euphorbia hirta plant extract and its in vitro anticancer activity against the liver cancer HepG2 cells

  • Research Articles
  • Published:
Vegetos Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recently, the plants-derived bioactive components received a greater interests due to their significant anti-carcinogenic properties. Euphorbia hirta is a well known herbal plant, which is highlighted to show a remarkable anticancer activities against several types of cancers. In this study, we analyzed the in vitro antitumor action of E. hirta against the liver cancer HepG2 cell line. Our current findings demonstrated the existence of several bioactive metabolites in the E. hirta plant, which is studied through phyotochemical analysis and characterized through chromatogram and FT-IR analysis. The administration of E. hirta plant extract exhibited the remarkable diminution in the cell proliferation and effectively induced the apoptosis in the HepG2 cells. The outcomes of fluorescence analysis revealed that the E. hirta plant extract decreased the MMP level, and increased the accumulation of ROS and apoptosis in the liver cancer HepG2 cells. In overall, the findings of the invitro studies showed that E. hirta plant extract effectively inhibited the cell proliferation and triggered the apoptosis in the liver cancer HepG2 cells. Hence, it can be a promising source to discover the possible antitumor drugs from this plant extract to treat the liver cancer.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al-Snafi AE (2017) Pharmacology and therapeutic potential of Euphorbia hirta (Syn:Euphorbiapilulifera)—a review. J Pharm 7(3):07–20

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dabrowska C, Li M, Fan Y (2016) Apoptotic caspases in promoting cancer: implications from their roles in development and tissue homeostasis. Adv Exp Med Biol 930:89–112

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davies G (2000) Time tables of medicine. Black Dog & Leventhal, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M (2015) Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int J Cancer 136:359–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He J, Wei W, Yang Q, Wang Y (2019) Phillygenin exerts in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects in drug- resistant human esophageal cancer cells by inducing mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis, ROS generation and inhibition of the nuclear factor kappa B NF-κBsignalling pathway. Med Sci Monit 25:739–745

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Iqbal J, Abbasi BA, Ahmad R, Mahmood T, Kanwal S, Ali B, Khali AT, Shah SA, Alam MM, Badshah H (2018) Ursolic acid a promising candidate in the therapeutics of breast cancer: current status and future implications. Biomed Pharmacother. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2018.09.096

  • Kocyigit A, Guler EM (2017) Curcumin induce DNA damage and apoptosis through generation of reactive oxygen species and reducing mitochondrial membrane potential in melanoma cancer cells. Cell Mol Biol 63:97–105

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koff JL, Ramachandiran S, Bernal-Mizrachi L (2015) A time to kill: targeting apoptosis in cancer. Int J Mol Sci 16:2942–2955

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lobo V, Patil A, Phatak A, Chandra N (2010) Free radicals, antioxidants and functional foods: Impact on human health. Pharmacogn Rev 4:118–126

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nyeemet MAB, Haque MS, Akramuzzaman M, Siddika R, Sultana S, Islam R (2017) Euphorbia hirta Linn. A wonderful miracle plant of Mediterranean region: a review. J Med Plants Stud 5(3):170–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Pham-Huy LA, He L, Pham-Huy C (2008) Free radicals, antioxidants in disease and health. Int J Biomed Sci 4:89–96

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ping KY, Darahb I, Chenc Y, Sasidharan S, Dharmara S (2013) Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity assessment of Euphorbia hirta in MCF-7 cell line model using comet assay. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 3:692–696

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Qi X, Li J, Zhou C, Lv C, Tian M (2015) MiR-142-3p suppresses SOCS6 expression and promotes cell proliferation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cell Physiol Biochem 36:1743–1752

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman M, Islam B, Biswas M, Alam AHMK (2015) In vitro antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity of different parts of Tabebuia pallida growing in Bangladesh. BMC Res Notes 8:621

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma N, Samarakoon KW, Gyawali R, Park YH, Lee SJ, Oh SJ, Lee TH, Jeong DK (2014) Evaluation of the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities of Euphorbia hirta ethanolic extract. Molecules 19:14567–14581

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shih MF, Cherng JY (2012) Potential applications of Euphorbia hirta in pharmacology. Drug Discov Res Pharmacogn 8:166–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Shrivastava S, Nagi R, Sharma S, Sanadi SAR, Dafallah ET, Ragit A (2020) Molecular targeted therapy: novel therapeutic approach for head and neck cancer. Ther Deliv 11(10):637–651

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sidambaram RR, Dinesh MG, Jayalakshmi ET (2011) An in vitro study of cytotoxic activity of Euphorbia hirta on hep2 cells of human epithelioma of larynx. Int J Pharm Sci 3:101–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh AK, Kumar R, Pandey AK (2018) Hepatocellular carcinoma: causes, mechanism of progression and biomarkers. Curr Chem Genom Transl Med 12:9–26

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sofowora A, Ogunbodede E, Onayade A (2013) The role and place of medicinal plants in the strategies for disease prevention. Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med 10(5):210–229

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Subramanian SP, Bhuvaneshwari S, Prasath GS (2011) Antidiabetic and antioxidant potentials of Euphorbia hirta leaves extract studied in streptozotocin-induced experimental diabetes in rats. Gen Physiol Biophys 30(3):278–285

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thomford NE, Senthebane DA, Rowe A, Munro D, Seele P, Maroyi A, Dzobo K (2018) Natural products for drug discovery in the 21st century: innovations for novel drug discovery. Int J Mol Sci 19(6):1578

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tiwari N, Mishra A, Bhatt G, Chaudhary A (2015) Anti-stress activity of a bioflavanoid: quercetin from Euphorbia hirta. Br J Pharm Res 6(2):68–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tripathi SK, Rengasamy KRR, Biswal BK (2020) Plumbagin engenders apoptosis in lung cancer cells via caspase-9 activation and targeting mitochondrial-mediated ROS induction. Arch Pharm Res 43:242–256

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tuhin RH, Begum MM, Rahman MS, Karim R, Begum T, Ahmed SU, Mostofa R, Hossain A, Abdel-Daim M, Begum R (2017) Wound healing effect of Euphorbia hirta linn. (Euphorbiaceae) in alloxan induced diabetic rats. BMC Complement Altern Med 17(1):423

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yang JD, Roberts LR (2010) Hepatocellular carcinoma: a global view. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 7:448–458

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yang L, Hong S, Wang Y, Chen H, Liang S, Peng P, Chen Y (2015) Development and external validation of nomograms for predicting survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after definitive radiotherapy. Sci Rep 5:15638

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan H, Ma Q, Piao G (2016) The traditional medicine and modern medicine from natural products. Molecules 21(5):559

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang SX, Qiu QH, Chen WB, Liang CH, Huang B (2014) Celecoxib enhances radiosensitivity via induction of G(2)-M phase arrest and apoptosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cell Physiol Biochem 33:1484–1497

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang W, Zhang Q, Jiang Y, Li F, Xin H (2016) Effects of ophiopogonin B on the proliferation and apoptosis of SGC-7901 human gastric cancer cells. Mol Med Rep 13:4981–4986

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Shri Sakthikailassh Women’s College for their kind support for all lab studies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kannan Revathi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest regarding this investigation.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kalaivani, S., Jayanthi, S., Revathi, K. et al. Phytochemical profile of Euphorbia hirta plant extract and its in vitro anticancer activity against the liver cancer HepG2 cells. Vegetos 37, 528–535 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42535-023-00621-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42535-023-00621-5

Keywords

Navigation