CYTOTOXIC EFFECT OF SAPONINS EXTRACTED FROM SPIRULINA PLATENSIS ON THREE CANCER CELL LINES

Background and Aim:Many researches have emphasized on bioactive compounds extracted from microalgae. Spirulina platensis is an edible, filamentous, photosynthetic microalgae that has 25 kinds of vitamins and minerals and contains many compounds with biotic activity, such as alkaloids, phenolic compounds, terpenoids, saponins, … Saponins are polycyclic aglycones attached to one or more sugar side chains. Saponins mainly presence in plants and there are many studies about these compounds in plants, but there are few studies in S. platensis. This study aimed to estimate total saponin content in S. platensis and effect of this compound on cell viability in 3 cancer cell lines (HepG2, MCF-7, MDA-MB-123).Methods: Saponins were extracted using mixture of distilled water and n- butanol. Total saponin extracted were then dried and weighed. Cellular viability of HepG2, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-123 were evaluated using MTT assay after 24 h treatment with 0.02-2 mg/ml of saponins extracted from S. platensis.Results:Total saponin extracted from S. platensis was estimated 28± 0.0005 mg/g. TLC profiles showed four bands for saponins with Rf values of (0.44, 0.48, 0.50,0.55) with UV treatment 230 nm. IC50 values in HepG2, MCF-7, MDA-MB-123 cells obtained in 0.35 mg/ml, 0.4 mg/ml, 0.22 mg/ml respectively.