Anticancer property of ethanolic extract of Urginea maritima root on Hela cancer cells in cell culture

Cancer is an important health and hygienic issue in the world. The usage of medicinal plants as a natural source of cancer treatment is considered because of the lack of toxicity of these plants, in most cases on normal cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ethanolic extract of Urginea maritima root on Hela cancer cells compared to Hek normal cells. After root drying, extraction was done by Soxhlet method. Then, Hela and Hek cells were cultured at concentrations of 1000, 200, 150,100,50,10,1 and 0.1 µg/ml of ethanolic extract of Urginea maritima root at 24, 48, 72 hours and their viability was determined by MTT test. Ethanolic extract of Urginea maritima root decreased the viability of Hela cells at different doses and hours (P<0.05) but it didn’t effect on Hek cells viability. Discussion Due to existence of flavonoids and glycosides in the Urginea maritima root, the reduction of Hela cells viability can be attributed to these compounds.