Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

The process by which new blood vessels grow is termed as Angiogenesis. In the adult, except for a few physiological processes such as menses, wound healing, and placental formation, all angiogenic processes are pathologic. Angiogenic imbalance in which proangiogenic factors predominate over antiangiogenic factors is tumor angiogenesis. Inhibition of blood vessel growth, is a way to prevent tumour growth and other angiogenesis-dependent diseases is antiangiogenesis.

The present study aims to determine the antioxidant and antiangiogenic activities of ethanolic root extract of Cassia occidentalis.

Antioxidant activity was evaluated against various free radicals like Nitric oxide scavenging, Hydroxyl radicals and Phosphomolybdenum assay using Ascorbic acid as standard. The most common study used to evaluate the antiangiogenic activity is chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), an in vivo assay.

Ethanolic root extract of Cassia occidentalis exhibited a significant antioxidant status which is evident from their IC50 values 21.42 ug/mL in Nitric oxide scavenging method, 22.3 ug/mL in hydroxyl radical. In phosphomolybdenum assay, there is concentration-dependent increase in absorbance. The results obtained are similar to that of standard drug ascorbic acid. In anti-oxidant activity, percentage inhibition was determined by calculating IC50 values. By decreasing the capillary networks proliferation in a dose (50 to 150 μg/egg) dependent manner which is probably related to the inhibition of neovascularization. The present study results indicated significant antiangiogenic effect on chorioallantoic membrane.

The plant extract has shown good free radical scavenging activity indicative from their percentage inhibition. It also exhibits significant antiangiogenic activity, and this is a possible rationale for its folkloric use as an anticancer agent.