AYURVEDIC HERBAL DRUGS WITH POSSIBLE CYTOSTATIC ACTIVITY

Ayurveda is considered to be the traditional science of health in Indi a and is based on the principle of subjectivity. All matter is compose d of five basic elements, which can be perceived by the five sense org ans. All food and drugs are classified according to their pharmacologi cal properties, which are derived from these five elements. To investi gate which Ayurvedic plants might have cytostatic activity, an Ayurved ic model for the pathogenesis of cancer was made. Based on this, selec tion criteria were formed, that were used to select plants from a list of Ayurvedic herbal drugs. Some of the selected species could be coll ected in India and Nepal. The dried material of 14 species was submitt ed to ethanol (70% v/v) extraction and the extracts were tested for cy totoxicity on COLO 320 tumour cells, using the microculture tetrazoliu m (MTT) assay. The IC50-value, the concentration causing 50% growth in hibition of the tumour cells, was used as a parameter for cytotoxicity . Extracts of the flowers of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br. (Asclepi adaceae) and of the nuts of Semecarpus anacardium L.f. (Anacardiaceae) displayed the strongest cytotoxic effect with IC50-values of 1.4 mu g /ml and 1.6 mu g/ml, respectively. The extracts of several other plant s did not show a cytotoxic effect up to 100 mu g/ml, the highest conce ntration tested.