The Curcuma longa plant is endowed with multiple traditional and therapeutic utilities and is here explored for its phytochemical constituents and cytotoxic potential. Turmeric rhizomes were extracted from three different solvents and screened for the presence of different phytochemical constituents, observation of which indicated that the polar solvents favoured extraction of greater versatile phytochemical constituents. These extracts were investigated for their cytotoxic potential by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay on three different of cell lines including SCC-29B (oral cancer cell line), DU-145 (prostate cancer cell line) and the Vero cell line (healthy cell line/non-cancerous cell line). This assay was performed by taking three extracts from isolated curcuminoids and a pure bioactive compound bisdemethoxycurcumin (BD). Bisdemethoxycurcumin was isolated from curcuminoids and purified by column and thin-layer chromatography, and its structural characterisation was performed with different spectroscopic techniques such as FTIR, NMR (1H Proton and 13C Carbon-NMR) and LC-MS. Amongst the extracts, the ethanolic extracts exhibited stronger cytotoxic potential against the oral cancer cell line (SCC-29B) with an IC50value of 11.27 μg/mL, and that this was too low of a cytotoxicity against the Vero cell line. Although, curcuminoids have also shown a comparable cytotoxic potential against SCC-29B (IC50 value 16.79 μg/mL), it was not as potent against the ethanolic extract, and it was even found to be cytotoxic against healthy cell lines at a very low dose. While considering the isolated compound, bisdemethoxycurcumin, it also possessed a cytotoxic potential against the prostate cancer cell line (DU-145) (IC50 value of 93.28 μg/mL), but was quite safe for the healthy cell line in comparison to doxorubicin.
Keywords: Curcuma longa; bisdemethoxycurcumin; cancer; cancer cell lines; curcuminoids; ethanolic extract.