Abstract
Methanol extracts of Cassia fistula was used for phytochemical analysis and totally 10 different phytoconstituents were identified from GC-MS. Two compounds (citronellol and linoleic acid) out of ten have already shown as anticancer agents. In MTT assay, in 30 μg treated human cancer cells showed less viability (5.06%). If the concentration of extract decreases the viability was less reason is that drug dose dependent. The anticancer activity was observed in extract treated cancer cells by Acridine orange assay, observed the necrosis and arrested the cell cycle at different stages. The extract induced the activities of caspase -3, 7, 9 and 10, these enzymes are crucial for apoptosis and they are quantified and compared with untreated control. The activity of these enzymes was increased from 2 fold to 5 fold. The genomic DNA fragmentation was observed in extract treated cancer cells. We conclude that the methanol extract of C.fistula having anticancer agents and they showed anticancer property in MTT assay confirmed by acridine orange test. The extract inhibited the cell growth and induced the cell death by modulating caspase enzymes and cleaving genomic DNA. Further work is needed to identify the exact anticancer agent in methanol extract of C. fistula.
