Evaluation of Cytotoxic Activity in Ethanolic Extract of Cucumis melo (L). fruit

Cytotoxicity is the quality of being toxic to cells, and in vitro cytotoxicity testing procedures reduce the use of laboratory animals. The present study was designed to investigate the cytotoxic activity of the Cucumis melo (L) fruit against HepG2 cell lines. To prepare the extract, fresh pulps of Cucumis melo fruit was chopped into pieces and dried at room temperature for 24 hours. 10 g of the dried fruit powder was successively extracted with 100 ml of ethanol using Soxhlet apparatus and filtered through Whatman No 1 filter paper. The cytotoxic activity for cancer cell lines was evaluated by MTT assay. The in vitro cytotoxicity of different concentrations (18.75 - 300μg/mL) of the ethanolic extract of Cucumis melo fruit was evaluated by the MTT assay. The IC50 value is measured by the concentration of extract, causing 50% growth inhibition of cancer cells. The results indicated that the cytotoxic effect of the ethanolic extract of Cucumis melo fruit against HepG2 cells is dose-dependent. At low concentrations, the extract was found to be less toxic towards the HepG2 cells, whereas, at higher concentrations, the toxicity was increased. The concentration at 201.5 µg / ml was found to be an effective dose because, at this concentration, it exhibited 50 % cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells. This work revealed the potentials of ethanolic extract of Cucumis melo fruit as a cytotoxic agent against liver cancer cell lines. The plant can be further screened against various diseases using toxicity models in order to find out its unexplored efficacy.