Lyophilized extract of Hibiscus Sabdariffa L. induces cytotoxicity in breast cancer cell lines.

Cancer is one of the most serious diseases and a worldwide public health problem. Despite existing latest therapies, some types of cancer are untreatable, as an example triple negative breast cancer, which due to molecular characteristics does not respond effectively to conventional treatments. In recent years, the use of medicinal plants for prevention and as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of cancer has been increased. Hibiscus Sabdariffa L. is a plant, that belongs to the Malvaceae family that have been attributed for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and chemotherapeutic properties.

Methodology: A MTT trial was carried out to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the lyophilized extract of Hibiscus Sabdariffa L. in breast cancer cell lines (HCC-70 and HCC-1954) exposed at different concentrations (0.10, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/ ml)

Results: An increased cytotoxic effect in the HCC-70 cell line exposed to the 0.5 and 1 mg/ml concentration of the Hibiscus Sabdariffa L. lyophilized extract was observed.

Conclusions: The use of extracts as an alternative adjuvant therapy is an area that requires much research, but has shown great potential for further studies in addition to providing a precedent in to the area of natural medicine for research of more natural extracts.