Cytotoxic Activities of Salvia. of the Labiatae Family

ABSTRACT Eight crude extracts of five Salvia. species were evaluated for cytotoxic activities against brine shrimps and four human cancer cell lines [human colon adenocarcinoma (HCA), HepG2, MCF-7, and human pancreatic carcinoma (HPC) along with a normal mouse cell line (areolar cells)] as a control. In the brine shrimp lethality test, all samples, except S. fruticosa. L. (Sifnos collection) and S. verbenaca. L. (Zante collection), were found to be highly active with ED50 values less than 300 μg ml. In the case of human cancer cell lines, S. fruticosa., collected from Kalymnos and Crete, were active against HCA cells with LC50 = 60.4 and 40.1 μg ml respectively. Interestingly, only one sample, S. fruticosa. collected from Kalymnos, was active against HepG2 cells with LC50 = 68.1 μg ml. In the case of MCF-7 cells, S. fruticosa. collected from three different locations (Kalymnos, Rhodos, and Crete) showed similar activity with LC50 = 43.1, 41.1, and 42.3 µg ml, respectively. All S. fruticosa. samples were found to be cytotoxic toward a normal mouse cell line when tested at 0.1 mg ml. All the other samples had LC50 values greater than 75 µg ml,and were considered to be inactive.