Antiproliferative Properties of Embelia ribes

Abstract

Embelia ribes is a threatened woody shrub belonging to the family Myrsinaceae, which is sparsely distributed in the moist deciduous forests of the Western Ghats in India. The previous reports showed the effect of Embelin in methylcholanthrene induced fibrosarcoma in albino rats besides en- hancing their survival time. Embelin provided a good support for the chemopreventive effect against N- nitrosodiethy- lamine/ phenobarbital induced hepatocarcinogenesis in Wistar rats. The present studies on cancer cell lines revealed that the crude hexane extract of the fruits of Embelia ribes exhibited cytotoxicity against Human leukaemic cells (K562) and Dalton's Lymphoma ascites cells (DLA). Bioactivity directed fractionation and isolation yielded Embelin as the active principle. Invitro studies on Embelin suggests the potential of the compound on these two cell lines. However the compound did not exhibit toxicity on normal lymphocytes isolated from human blood preferentially attacking the tumour cells. This is the first report of invitro cytotoxic activity of Embelia ribes.