In Vitro Anti-Cancer Activities of Luvunga scandens (‘Mengkurat Jakun’) on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells

Abstract

Luvunga scandens (“Mengkurat Jakun”) is one of the medicinal plant that produce triterpenoid compounds. A number of studies have reported that the compounds possess anti-proliferative activities against various type of cancer cells. The present study aims for anticancer potential of two triterpenoids derived from L. scandens namely flindissol (compound-1) and 3-oxotirucalla-7,24-dien-21-oic-acid (compound-2) on human oral cancer HSC-3 cells. Cytotoxic activities of the triterpenoids were assessed by MTT assay. Apoptosis activities were determined by flow cytometry and caspase 3/7 assay. The MTT assay showed that compounds-1 and -2 markedly induced cytotoxicity on HSC-3 cells with IC50 10.7 μM and 8.3 μM, respectively. Flow-cytometry analysis demonstrated that both compounds increase the percentage of apoptotic cells by 18.2 % and 16.6 % respectively. Moreover, the caspase 3/7 assay confirmed that compounds-1 and -2 markedly induced caspase 3/7 activities in HSC-3 cells. These results suggest that triterpenoids extracted from L. scandens could be a potential candidate for oral cancer treatment.