Annona squamosa Linn: cytotoxic activity found in leaf extract against human tumor cell lines.

Cancer is a common cause of death in human populations. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy still remain the corner stone of treatment. However, herbal medicines are gaining popularity on account of their lesser harmful side effects on non-targeted human cells and biological environment. Annona squamosa Linn is a common delicious edible fruit and its leaf have been used for the treatment in various types of diseases. The objective of present study is to determine the anticancer potential of the organic and aqueous extracts of leaf of Annona squamosa L. MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazole-2yl)-2, 5-biphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay against hepatocellular carcinoma cell line BEL-7404, lung cancer line H460, human epidermoid carcinoma cell line KB-3-1, prostatic cancer cell line DU145, breast carcinoma cell line MDA-MB-435, and colon cancer cell line HCT-116 Human primary embryonic kidney cell line HEK293 as control were used for the study. The crude extract (Zcd) and Ethyl acetate extract (ZE) were found significant anticancer activity only on human epidermoid carcinoma cell line KB-3-1 and colon cancer cell line HCT-116.