Antioxidant and anti-neoplastic activities of Picrorhiza kurroa extracts

Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth., a well-known traditional herb from the Scrophulariaceae family has a remarkable reputation among the indigenous medical practitioners. The antioxidant and anti-neoplastic activities of methanolic and aqueous extracts of P. kurroa rhizome were investigated in the present study. The total phenolic content was determined by a spectrophotometric method. The antioxidant efficacies of the extracts were studied employing radical scavenging assays (DPPH and OH), ferric reducing antioxidant property (FRAP) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) assay for testing inhibition of lipid peroxidation. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of the extracts was tested by XTT assay in MDA-MB-435S (human breast carcinoma), Hep3B (human hepatocellular carcinoma) and PC-3 (human prostate cancer) cell lines. The ability of the extracts to induce apoptosis was also investigated. Both extracts exhibited promising antioxidant potentials. The extracts were also observed to be cytotoxic at the tested dosage and were able to target cells towards apoptosis. The study concludes that P. kurroa possess diverse therapeutic potentials which might be useful in development of drugs or their precursors.