Preliminary Growth Inhibitory Studies of the Methanol Extract and Fractions of Leaves of Artocarpus altilis.

Purpose: Artocarpus altilis is one of the plants used by herbalists in parts of Abraka, Delta State for the management of various forms of cancer. This work is aimed at evaluating this claim using bench-top assay involving anti-proliferation of seed radicles of Sorghum bicolor.

Methods: The powdered leaf sample was extracted with 90% methanol by cold maceration and the extract was evaluated for the presence of phytochemicals. The extract was subjected to vacuum liquid chromatographic fractionation and the fractions were all subjected to biological screening using guinea corn radicle inhibitory assay at concentrations between 1-30 (crude extract) and 1-10 mg/mL (fractions)  respectively, over a period of 96 h.

Results: The extract showed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids and anthraquinones. The controls had an average length of 32.45±5.70 mm, whereas the seeds treated with 20 mg/mL and 30 mg/mL of the crude extract had an average length of 2.03±0.87 mm and 0.40±0.28 mm respectively, indicating 93.70 and 98.77% reduction in length respectively. The bulked vlc fraction A4 was observed to exhibit a higher inhibitory effect over A3 and A10 bulked fractions as it gave an average of 0.65±0.57 at 10 mg/mL after 96 h indicating 99% reduction in length compared to 46.45 ± 5.32 mm of the control.

Conclusion: This study involving the use of seed radicle assay to evaluate the inhibitory potential of this plant has to an extent validated the traditional use of this plant in the management of various forms of cancer. However, the need to isolate the active ingredients responsible for the observed activity and their corresponding biological activities on human cancer cell lines will form the basis of the next phase of this work