The in vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of the aqueous, chloroform and methanol extracts of Muntingia calabura leaves were determined in the present study. Assessed using the 3,(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) (MTT) assay, the aqueous and methanol extracts of M. calabura inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, HeLa, HT-29, HL-60 and K-562 cancer cells while the chloroform extract only inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, HeLa, HL-60 and K-562 cancer cells. Interestingly, all extracts of M. calabura, which failed to inhibit the MDA-MB-231 cells proliferation, did not inhibit the proliferation of 3T3 (normal) cells, indicating its safety. All extracts (20, 100 and 500 μg/ml) were found to possess antioxidant activity when tested using the DPPH radical scavenging and superoxide scavenging assays with the methanol, followed by the aqueous and chloroform, extract exhibiting the highest antioxidant activity in both assays. The total phenolic content for the aqueous, methanol and chloroform extracts were 2970.4 ± 6.6, 1279.9 ± 6.1 and 2978.1 ± 4.3 mg/100 g gallic acid, respectively. In conclusion, the M. calabura leaves possess potential antiproliferative and antioxidant activities that could be attributed to its high content of phenolic compounds, and thus, needs to be further explored.

The present study aims to determine the in vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of various extracts from the leaves of Melastoma malabathricum using various established in vitro assays. The aqueous extract inhibited the proliferation of Caov-3 and HL-60 cell lines, while the chloroform extract exhibited antiproliferative activity against the Caov-3, HL-60, and CEM-SS cell lines. The methanol extract demonstrated antiproliferative activity against more cell lines, including the MCF-7, HeLa, Caov-3, HL-60, CEM-SS, and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines. Interestingly, all extracts did not inhibit the proliferation of 3T3 cells, thus indicating their noncytotoxic properties. Unlike the chloroform extracts, the aqueous and methanol extracts of M malabathricum (20, 100, and 500 μg/ml) produced high antioxidant activity for the superoxide scavenging assay with only the 500 μg/ml aqueous and methanol extracts exhibited high activity for the 2,2-diphenyl -1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay. The total phenolic content recorded for the aqueous, methanol, and chloroform extracts were 3344.2 ± 19.1, 3055.1 ± 8.7, and 92.5 ± 7.3 mg/100 g of gallic acid, respectively. The M malabathricum leaves possessed potential antiproliferative and antioxidant activities that could be attributed to its high content of phenolic compounds.

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