Tumor-specificity and radical scavenging activity of poly-herbal formula.

A total of 14 poly-herbal formula extracts were compared for their biological activities both in vivo and in vitro. Pretreatment of mice with the extracts protected them from E. coli infection to various extents. Among the extracts, the HD-12 and DLH-3073 extracts showed the highest cytotoxicity against both HIV-infected and mock-infected MT4 cells, without induction of any apparent anti-HIV activity. The extracts showed significantly higher cytotoxic activity against five human tumor cell lines (HSC-2, HSC-3, HSG, MT-4, HL-60) than against three normal human cell lines (HGF, HPC, HPLF). Agarose gel electrophoresis demonstrated that the HD-12 and DLH-3073 extracts induced intemucleosomal DNA fragmentation in HL-60 cells. ESR spectroscopy showed that all the extracts produced radicals and this was paralleled by their ability to scavenge the superoxide anion (produced by hypoxanthine-xanthine oxidase reaction), the hydroxyl radical (produced by Fenton reaction) and nitric oxide (produced by NOC- 7) in the presence of radical trapping agents. Higher and lower concentrations of extracts enhanced or reduced respectively, the radical intensity of sodium ascorbate, suggesting their bimodal actions. The tumor specificity and antioxidant properties of the herb extracts further suggest their medicinal efficacy.