<i>Salvadora persica</i> (Miswak): Antioxidant and Promising Antiangiogenic Insights

Abstract

The use of plants to improve dental health and to promote oral hygiene has been practiced for centuries and persists in several communities throughout the world. Salvadora persica (Miswak) has a wide geographic distribution. The ancient Arabs had the habit of using it to whiten and polish the teeth. Here, we determined in vitro antioxidant activity, total phenols and flavonoids and evaluated antiproliferative activity of the extract of S. persica (Miswak). The MTT assay was used to estimate the antiproliferative activities of the extract against human hepatoma (HepG2) cancer cell line. Inhibition percentage of DPPH scavenging activity was dose-dependent and ranged from (30.7% ± 0.62) to (5.89% ± 0.98). The phenolic content was (2.7 ± 0.11) mg GAE/g while the flavonoid content was (2.70 ± 0.45) mg QE/g. Antiproliferative results of the extracts were found to be consistent with their antioxidant activity. Our extract also exhibited clear antiangiogenic activity. These findings introduce S. persica as the useful and novel potential anti-tumor agent for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment.