TUMOR PROMOTER ACTIVITY IN MALAYSIAN EUPHORBIACEAE

Herbal medication has been practised by the rural Malaysian Malays for a long time. However, the long-term side-effects have never been stud ied. In the present study, 48 species of Euphorbiaceae were screened f or tumour-promoter activity by means of an in vitro assay using a huma n lymphoblastoid cell line harbouring the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) gen ome. Twenty-seven per cent (13 out of 48) of the species tested were f ound to be positive, and in four species, namely Breynia coronata Hk.f , Codiaeum variegatum (L) Bl, Euphorbia atoto and Exocoecaria agalloch a, EBV-inducing activity was observed when the plant extracts were tes ted at low concentrations of between 0.2 and 1.2 mu g ml(-1) in cell c ulture. This observation warrants attention from the regular users of these plants because regular use of plants with tumour-promoting activ ity could well be an aetiological factor for the promotion of tumours among rural Malaysian Malays.