Chemopreventive potential of Annona muricata L leaves on chemically-induced skin papillomagenesis in mice.

Annona muricata L (Annonaceae), commonly known as soursop has a long, rich history in herbal medicine with a lengthy recorded indigenous use. It had also been found to be a promising new anti-tumor agent in numerous in vitro studies. The present investigation concerns chemopreventive effects in a two-stage model of skin papillomagenesis. Chemopreventive effects of an ethanolic extract of A. muricata leaves (AMLE) was evaluated in 6-7 week old ICR mice given a single topical application of 7,12-dimethylbenza(α)anthracene (DMBA 100 μg/100 μl acetone) and promotion by repeated application of croton oil (1% in acetone/ twice a week) for 10 weeks. Morphological tumor incidence, burden and volume were measured, with histological evaluation of skin tissue. Topical application of AMLE at 30, 100 and 300 mg/kg significantly reduced DMBA/croton oil induced mice skin papillomagenesis in (i) peri-initiation protocol (AMLE from 7 days prior to 7 days after DMBA), (ii) promotion protocol (AMLE 30 minutes after croton oil), or (iii) both peri-initiation and promotion protocol (AMLE 7 days prior to 7 day after DMBA and AMLE 30 minutes after croton oil throughout the experimental period), in a dose dependent manner (p<0.05) as compared to carcinogen-treated control. Furthermore, the average latent period was significantly increased in the AMLE-treated group. Interestingly, At 100 and 300 mg/ kg, AMLE completely inhibited the tumor development in all stages. Histopathological study revealed that tumor growth from the AMLE-treated groups showed only slight hyperplasia and absence of keratin pearls and rete ridges. The results, thus suggest that the A.muricata leaves extract was able to suppress tumor initiation as well as tumor promotion even at lower dosage.