Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy

Historically, plant products have enjoyed a rich use for their medicinal properties in herbal medicine. Plant compounds with multiple anticancer characteristics are essential to be developed as anticancer drugs. In the same context, we have made an attempt to screen seven crude ethanolic extracts of medicinally vital plants for their antitumor activity using Ehrlich Ascites Tumor (EAT) model. Dioscoria bulbifera L. is a plant used as traditional medicine in mainland China, having antitumor effects in its extracts and/or ingredients. And since, our preliminary results indicated that, D. bulbifera rhizomes extract (DBRE) had the best antitumor, antiproliferative and antiangiogenic potential amongst other plants; it was chosen for further in vitro and in vivo studies. The peritoneum of mice treated with DBRE showed significant reduction in peritoneal angiogenesis, which was further confirmed by inhibition of neovascularization in rat cornea and chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) in vivo. Additionally, we noted attenuated micro vessel density (MVD) count and endothelial cell proliferation in the histological section of DBRE treated mice peritoneum. Quantitation of VEGF in the DBRE treated ascitic fluid of EAT mice showed significant reduction in VEGF secretion when compared to untreated controls. DBRE also exhibited excellent antiproliferative effects against EAT, choriocarcinoma, breast cancer cells, glioblastoma, endothelial cells in vitro in a dose dependent manner. Further, antiangiogenic activity of DBRE in the tube formation assay strengthened the presumption that D. bulbifera may be a potential supplementary source for cancer therapy.