Summated findings of Hibiscus sabdariffa (roselle) in the prevention and treatment of cancer
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References | Roselle component | Route of administration | Study type | Treatment dose and duration | Human equivalent dose | Technique for preparation | Study model | Methods | Statistical analysis | Salient findings |
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1. | [38] | Flower extract | Oral | In vivo | 175, 250, 500 mg/kg b.w.; 21 wk | ~14.06 mg/kg b.w. | Roselle juice is prepared from the dried calyces by boiling, filtered and dried | Pre-pubertal Wister rats and induction of breast cancer by 7,12-dimethybenz(a) anthracene (DMBA) | Haematological analysis, ELISA, histological analysis | ANOVA, Dunnett’s post hoc test | Hibiscus juice reduced tumor incidence, tumor burden and decreased tumor volume in experimental models significantly increasing antioxidant activity and thus having anti-breast tumour properties. |
2. | [39] | Flower extract | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 1.5, 3.05, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 µg/mL; 24 h | NA | Flowers are macerated in three different solvents- ethyl acetate, ethanol and n-hexane | A549 lung cancer cell line-eight variety | MTT assay, ELISA | SD, linear equation | The leaf extract showed anticancer activity which can be further developed as a source of natural anticancer from plants. |
3. | [6] | Flower extract | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 4 mg/mL; 48 h | NA | Flowers are ground into a fine powder, boiled, and filtered via gravity filtration followed by vacuum filtration. It was the freeze using a lyophilizer in ddH20 and obtaining a final stock which was then passed through a filter | Breast cancer cell line MCF-7, breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 and normal human skin fibroblast cell line | Annexin V binding assay and propidium iodide staining, tail image-based cytometer, fluorescent images of cells | ANOVA, Dunnett’s post hoc test and standardised software | HS flower extract shows an ability to enhance apoptotic induction by chemotherapy treatments through an increase in ROS generation and mitochondrial membrane collapse on both triple-negative and ER-positive breast cancer cell lines. |
4. | [35] | Calyces | Cell culture medium | In vivo | 400 mg/kg b.w.; 15 d | 32.52 mg/kg b.w. | An infusion was prepared with dried calyces, filtered, evaporates and applied | Adult male Wister rats | HPLC, micronucleus test (MNT) | Chi-square test | The study shows that the plant has potential chemoprotective properties against DNA damage and fights against free radicals, and genotoxic substances thus preventing carcinogenesis. |
5. | [40] | Flower | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 250 µg/mL; 24 h | NA | Fresh flowers were extracted in 90% ethanol, concentrated in a vacuum, fractionated with ethyl acetate and the dried powder was dissolved in DMSO solvent | HepG2 liver cancer cell lines | MTT assay | ANOVA, Student’s t-test | The solid obtained from the ethyl acetate fraction has moderate anticancer activity. Further, an increase in the concentration of the extract can induce apoptosis in human cancer cell lines. |
6. | [41] | Leaf extract | Cell culture medium | In vivo | 50 mg/mL; 42 d | ~15 mg/kg b.w. | The dried leaves were macerated with hot water, evaporated, filtered and lyophilized | Athymic nude mice, CaP cell line | Folin-Ciocalteau method, spectrophotometer, HPLC, MTT assay, western blot, gelatin-zymogram protease assays, SDS PAGE, real-time qRT-PCR | ANOVA, Dunnett’s test | Inhibited the cell invasion of LNCaP cells via downregulation of PI3K/Akt signalling and by inactivation of NF-κβ. The leaf extract inhibited the growth of prostate tumor xenograft in athymic nude mice. |
7. | [42] | Dried calyces | Cell culture medium | In vivo | 5%, 10% (meal), 2.5%, 5% (juice); 38 wk | NA | Calyx juice was prepared with ethanolic extract | 3-week-old male Fisher 344 rats. Induction of tumor development by azoxymethane followed by standard protocols | Cellular and biochemical tests | ANOVA, Tukey’s post hoc test | Dietary administration of roselle as a meal and juice reduced the development of colon tumors in the Fisher 344 male rats. |
8. | [37] | Calyces | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 mg/mL; 24, 48, 72 h | NA | Dried powder used for extraction by maceration method, filtered, evaporated and sterilized | Human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7, NCBI, C135) and normal human fetal foreskin fibroblast (HFFF, NCBI, C170) cell lines | MTT assay, spectrophotometer, agarose gel electrophoresis | ANOVA, Tukey’s post hoc test | Plant extract significantly inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells. HS extract proved to be apoptogenic for MCF-7 breast carcinoma however the exact mechanism of aqueous extract on cancer is not known. |
9. | [43] | Flower | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 0.1%-10%; 72 h | NA | Roselle juice was prepared by adding distilled water to the crushed roselle flower in a ratio of 30:70. Three samples are taken of three different stored periods (one week, one month, one year) | Estrogen-receptor positive and estrogen-receptor-negative human breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231), human cervical cancer (HeLa cells, human ovarian cancer [Caov-3]) | MTT cell proliferation assay, ELISA, spectrophotometer, DPPH-free radical scavenging assay | ANOVA, Duncan’s multiple-range test | Roselle juice exhibited the strongest anti-proliferative potency towards MCF-7 human breast cancer cells in comparison to Caov-3, Hela and MDA-MB-231 cells. The storage period of the juice did not decrease the anti-proliferative effect on cell lines and the scavenging effect of juice samples was found to be concentration dependent. |
10. | [44] | Leaf extract | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 0.2 mg mL; 24 h | NA | Dried leaves powdered dissolved in methanol, chloroform, ethanol and ethyl-acetate, placed in a shaking incubator, filtered and evaporate the solvent | Hepatocellular carcinoma Hep 3B cell culture. | MTT assay, spectrophotometer | ANOVA | Methanol was predicted to be the suitable solvent for the extraction of anticancer compounds from the leaves and it thus the potent anticancer activity against the Hep 3B cell lines. |
11. | [35] | Dried flower | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 0.1-10 mg/mL; 24 h | NA | The dried flower was macerated with hot water, evaporated, filtered and lyophilized to obtain the extract | AGS cell line and Chang liver cell lines | MTT assay, spectrophotometer, DAPI staining, electrophoresis, flow cytometric analysis, SDS-PAGE, immuno-blotting | ANOVA with post hoc test | Dried flower extracts of the plant appeared to have a stronger apoptotic effect with the phosphorylation of c-Jun via JNK/P38 signalling triggering apoptosis. It also induced the translocation of cyt-c from the mitochondria to the cytosol and caspase cascade activation. |
12. | [36] | Dried flower | Cell culture medium | In vitro | 0-4 mg/mL; 24 h | ~19.96 mg/kg b.w. | The dried flowers are mixed with methanol containing 1% HCl for 24 h subsequently filtered and reacted on an Amberlife Diaion HP-20 resin column, cleaned, eluted with methanol and then lyophilized | HL-60 (human Caucasian promyelocytic leukaemia) cell line | HPLC, MTT assay, flow-cytometric analysis, RT-PCR, immuno-blotting | ANOVA, Duncan’s multiple-range test | Flower extracts induce apoptosis via activating p38 MAPK and activating the p38-FasL and Bid pathway |
b.w., body weight; NA, not applicable; HS, Hibiscus sabdariffa; ROS, reactive oxygen species; ER, estrogen receptor; HPLC, high performance liquid chromatography; DMSO, dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide; qRT, quantitative reverse transcription; DPPH, 2,2 diphenylpicryl-hydrazyl; MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase.