Analysis of the Calyces from the Jamaica Species of Hibiscus Sabdariffa for Adrogenic Compounds

Abstract

The leaves and flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa are known to have many pharmacological properties. Hibiscus sabdariffa leaf extracts (HLE) have been documented to have anti‐cancer activities in different cancer cell lines. HLE has been shown to inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and metastasis in human prostate cancer cells suggesting that this flow may be a source for anti‐androgenic compounds. However, the anti‐androgen effect has not been examined in the calyx. The objective of this study was to obtain a unique bioactive fraction from the calyx of H. sabdariffa and to demonstrate its ability to inhibit prostate cancer cell growth. To accomplish our objective, we generated an aqueous and a methanol extraction of the calyces of the H. sabdariffa. The extracts were then examined by HPLC chromatography and for anti‐proliferative activity using the LNCaP cancer cells. Extraction of 22g of the calyces for 48hrs at room temperature resulted in 5.56mg and 2.75mg of analyte in aqueous and methanol extraction respectively. We obtained high yields of extracts (253mg per kg of dry weight) using water as compared to methanol as the solvent. An HPLC chromatogram profile of each extract was generated to characterize the number of respective chemicals present in the analytes. Analysis of the methanol extract revealed the presence of at least two distinct peaks with a retention times of 3.12min and 3.27min. We observed that the aqueous extract resulted only in a single peak with a retention time of 3.02min. Next, we examined the ability of both extracts to inhibit the growth of LNCaP‐GFP cancer cell line. Treatment of these cells for 1–5 days resulted in dose and time dependent inhibition of cell growth. We found that the methanol extract was capable of inducing cytotoxicity in 24hrs as compared to aqueous extracts which induced cytotoxicity after 72hrs. Our results demonstrated that both methanol and aqueous extracts of H. sabdariffa contained growth inhibitory compounds.Support or Funding InformationNIH R15AT006821(WG) and USDA/NIFA 2012‐38821‐20092.