Effect of wood, bark and leaf extracts of Macaranga trees on cytotoxic activity in some cancer and normal cell lines

The genus of Macaranga (Euphorbiacaceae) has 250 species of which 160 species are endemic in Kalimantan and New Guinea. They grow as pioneer trees and are used as traditional medicines in the Asian regions. This experiment concerns cytotoxicity in both cancer and normal cells of their methanol extracts from wood, bark and leaf parts. Some of them have not yet reported its cytotoxic activity in those cell lines. The 21 methanol extracts were prepared from seven Macaranga tree species (Macaranga bancana, Macaranga gigantea, Macaranga hullettii, Macaranga pruinosa, Macaranga tanarius, Macaranga trichocarpa and Macaranga triloba). The MTT assay was used to evaluate cytotoxic activity of extracts in cancer cell lines [human breast cancer (MCF-7), mouse melanoma (B16 melanoma), human colon cancer (HCT116), human cervical adenocarcinoma (HeLa)] and normal cell lines [human normal fibroblast (TIG-1) and normal human dermal fibroblast (NHDF)]. The leaf extracts of M. pruinosa, M. tanarius, M. trichocarpa showed more cytotoxicity than wood and bark in all cancer cell lines. In addition, the 5-fluorouracil was used as a positive control. These findings indicated the extracts from leaves of M. pruinosa, M. tanarius and M. trichocarpa had more potential than wood and bark parts to be developed as anti-cancer agents.