Antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of Acmella oleracea

Acmella oleracea has been widely used in various traditional medicines for the treatment of different diseases ranging from infection, helminthiasis, peptic ulcer to dental abscess. In this experiment, we analysed the antioxidant property of the methanol extract of A. oleracea by hydroxyl radical-scavenging assay and hydrogen peroxide-scavenging assay. In both the scavenging assays, the plant extract showed free radical scavenging activities in a concentration-dependent manner. The cytotoxic property was also determined by MTT assay, which indicated a potential cytotoxic effect on cancer cell lines such as HeLa (ATCC^® CCL-2^TM) and V79 (ATCC^® CCL-93^TM) cells. Higher cytotoxicity was noticed on V79 with an IC₅₀ of 54.341 μg/ml. The plant extract was only moderately toxic on HeLa. The results indicated that the plant contains important bioactive compounds having pharmacological properties.