Isolation of lupeol and gallic acid with cytotoxic activity of two different extracts from the leaves of iraqi Conocarpus erectus L.

Conocarpus erectus L. is a perennial, evergreen shrub belonging to Combretaceae family. Conocarpus plant reported to contain phenolic acid, flavonoids, lignan, terpenes and tannins. Aim of study was to isolate lupeol from hexane fraction and gallic acid from ethyl acetate fraction and investigate the effects of (hexane and ethyl acetate) fractions on viability of pancreatic AsPC-1 and breast MCF-7 cell lines by MTT assay. The presence of lupeol in the hexane and gallic acid in the ethyl acetate extracts was detected by TLC. The identification of isolated lupeol and gallic acid by HPTLC and HPLC comparing with standard lupeol and gallic acid. Structural elucidation of isolated compounds done by FTIR and UV spectrophotometer. The cytotoxic activity showed more at high concentration (30μg/ml) in both ethyl acetate and hexane fractions against MCF-7 cell line, the percentage of cellular inhibition for ethyl acetate at 30mg/ml was (73% and 79%) more than the hexane fraction in which the inhibition was (60% and 76%) at 48hr and 72 hr respectively. Furthermore, the cytotoxic activity more at high concentration (30μg/ml) in both fractions against AsPC-1 cell line with cellular inhibition (58% and 70%) for ethyl acetate fraction and (50% and 66%) for hexane fraction in compared with Cisplatin.