Cytotoxic Effect of Hydro-Alcoholic Extract of Crocus caspius on Breast Caner Cell Lines

Background and Breast cancer is the most common cancer in woman. About one million new cases are diagnosed every year worldwide. Many researchers are interested in anti-cancer effects of natural products. In this research, cytotoxic effects of Crocus caspius extract against breast cancer and normal cell lines were investigated and total phenols and flavonoids were also determined.
Flowers of Crocus caspius were collected from Neka in Mazandaran province, Iran, in autumn 2014. The powder of dried flowers were macerated with 80% methanol, three times every 48 hr. The methanol extract was concentrated under reduced pressure. Cell viability was determined using MTT and trypan blue assay was done on breast carcinoma cell lines (MCF7, 4T1, and SKBR3) and Swiss mouse embryo fibroblast (NIH/3T3) as normal cell lines. Various concentrations (1, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 µg/ml) of the extract and positive control were examined for determination of IC50.
Crocus caspius extract showed no considerable cytotoxic effects against breast cancer and normal cell lines. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents of the extract were quite high; 238.25±4.35 mg GAE/g and 85.41±6.24 mg quercetin/g of dry extract, respectively.
These results indicated non toxicity of Crocus caspius extract. Further studies are needed to investigate the preventive effect of C.caspius extract against cancer according to its total phenolic and flavonoid contents.