Effects of Icariside II from Epimedium koreanum on Tumour Cell Lines In‐vitro

Abstract

Epimedium koreanum is one of the most popular medicinal plants in China, its major constituents being 8-prenyl flavonoids. We studied the effects of one of these flavonoids, icariside II (3, 5, 7-trihydroxy-4′-methoxyflavone-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside) on the invitro growth of five human tumour cell lines, human promyelocytic leukaemia HL-60, human erythroleukaemia K562, human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell KB, macrophage of human pulmonary carcinoma cell PG and human gastric carcinoma cell BGC, using the MTT assay. Icariside II was cytotoxic to all cell lines tested. The inhibition (53–88%) observed was at 10−5M. The results suggest that icariside II may be a potentially useful antitumour agent.