A STUDY ON PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF ANNONA MURICATA

Phytocompounds from the medicinal plants are extensively studied for their mode of action and therapeutic efficacy. It is estimated that plant derived compounds constitute more than 50% of anticancer agents in one way or the other. The modern trend of anticancer drug development research is largely based on the exploration of potential phytochemicals, with this background, the hydro alcoholic extract of Annona muricata leaf was subjected to the phytochemical screening and its anticancer effect was also studied using Molt-3 T cells of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemic origin. The qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis showed the presence of various phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, terpenoids, tannins, saponins and steroids in the Annona muricata leaf extract which was confirmed by HPLC analysis. The leaf extract was able to scavenge free radicals effectively as determined by DPPH and H2O2 scavenging assay and also exhibited good cytotoxicity towards Molt-3 cell line while rendering protection against the normal/untransformed S. cerevisiae cells from oxidative damage using MTT and SRB assay. The results of annexin V/FITC staining clearly indicate that A.muricata leaf extract were able to induce apoptotic cell death in Molt-3 leukemic cell line. To conclude, the ethanolic extract of A.muricata leaf exhibit strong antioxidant and anticancer activity which might be due to the presence of various phytoconstituents