Phytochemical Composition, Anti-Inflammatory and Cytotoxic Activities of Chloroform Extract of Senna crotalarioides Kunth

Senna crotalarioides is used in traditional medicine to treat inflammation. The aim of this work was to investigate the anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activities and the possible mechanism of action of the chloroform extract washed with hexane of S. crotalarioides (CESC). The anti-inflammatory effect was tested on 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced ear edema in mice. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 were determined in macrophages J774A.1 stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The cytotoxic activity was evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against six human cancer cell lines: HeLa (cervical cancer), SKLU-1 and A549 (lung cancer), LNCaP (prostate cancer), SW620 (colon cancer) and MCF7 (breast cancer). The composition of the CESC was determined by GC-MS analysis, and standardized by HPLC-ELSD with ursolic acid as the phytochemical marker. CESC inhibited ear edema 61.45%. In chronic ear edema, CESC diminished the inflammation by 53.77%. CESC decreased TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 concentrations, and increased the concentration of IL-10. The extract showed IC50 values on HeLa, SKLU-1, A549, LNCaP, SW620 and MCF7 by 48, 21, 8.16, 6.82, 1.81, 4.06 and 12.5 μg/mL, respectively. The main components were ursolic acid, 1-octacosanol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, 1-triacontanol, (Z, Z) hexadec-9-enoic acid octadec-9-enyl ester. CESC might be useful for developing a phytomedicine with anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activities.