Ethnopharmacological studies of Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum

Ethnopharmacological surveys conducted in Morocco allowed us to identify many plants species, the most prescribed and used in traditional medicine to treat cancer. From these species, we chose to study Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum. We prepa-ed various extracts (alkaloid, cyclohexane, dichloromethane and methanolic) of the Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum aerial parts, the phytochemical studies revealed that the plant contains sterols, sapogenines, triterpenes, tannins and alkaloids. The chemical analysis of cyclohexane extract results in the identification of known con-stituents and the alkaloid extract has been studied by different chromatographic methods to isolate many fractions and to study their chemical composition. These investigations revealed the presence of hordenin. Cytotoxic activities were screened by an in vitro assay system of growth inhibition against two human cancer cell line, namely breast cancer cell line (MCF7) and cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa), and the results demonstrated that all various extract of Mesembryanthmum nodiflrum did not show significant cytotoxic activity on MCF and Hela cells, at concentrations ranging from 31.25 to 1000 μg/ml. The antioxidant activity of various extracts of M. nodiflo-rum was evaluated by DPPH test and showed that all extract exhibited higher radical scavenging activity, as to standard used, Trolox. The dichlorometh-ane extract of Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum present an anti-radical activity esti-mated to 94.39 ±0.51% (p<0.001). These results suggest that the products of Mese-mbryantemum nodiflorum may provide a new therapeutic avene.