Background: Marine organisms produce a variety of compounds with pharmacological activities, including anticancer effects. They contain several secondary metabolites with interesting biological activities. This study attempted to find cytotoxicity of Hexane, Dichloromethane and Butanol partitions of Holothuria leucospilota and Echinometra mathaei.
Materials and methods: H. leucospilota and E. mathaei were collected from Persian Gulf. The animals were extracted by maceration with methanol-ethyl acetate (1:1). The H. leucospilota extract was partitioned by Kupchan method to hexane, dichloromethane, butanol, and water partitions. The cytotoxic activity of the extracts was investigated against HeLa (cervical cancer) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells cell lines by mitochondrial tetrazolium test assay after 72 h.
Results: The cell survivals of HeLa cell were decreased by increasing the concentration of extracts. A significant reduction in cell viability at the doses of 30 (μg/ml) of dichloromethane (DCM) partition, 0.3, 3, and 30 (μg/ml) of ButOH partitions of sea cucumber, and 0.5 (μg/ml) of E. mathaei was observed. The median growth inhibitory concentration value of Hex, DCM, ButoH, and water partitions were 0.301, 0.21, 2.29, and 0.229 μg/ml, respectively.
Conclusion: This study reveals that different partitions of H. leucospilota and total extract of E. mathaei have cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines. More study is necessary to find the active metabolites in the more active partitions.
Keywords: Cancer; Persian Gulf; cytotoxic; echinometra; holothuria.