Tumor cell-selective antiproliferative effect of the extract from Morinda citrifolia fruits.

The methanol extract from Morinda citrifolia fruits was tested for cytotoxicity activity on the MTT assay. The appearance of cytotoxic changes after exposure to the extract was in a concentration dependent manner. The median lethal concentrations (LC(50)) of the extract in baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, African green monkey kidney (Vero) cells and human laryngeal carcinoma (Hep2) cells were found to be 2.5, 3 and 5 mg/mL, respectively. A concentration of 0.1 mg/mL of crude extract exhibited cytotoxic activity against breast cancer (MCF7) and neuroblastoma (LAN5) cell lines at 29% and 36%, respectively. The same concentration of extract showed no toxicity to Vero and very little toxicity to BHK (6%) and Hep2 (13%) cells.