VIABILITY AND TRANSPLANTABILITY OF DEVELOPED TUMOUR CELLS TREATED IN VITRO WITH ANTITUMOUR AGENT C/M₂ ISOLATED FROM A HERBAL CANCER REMEDY – OF ANNONA SENEGALENSIS

Abstract

A constituent of the rootbark of Annona senegalensis, used by Nigerian traditional healers to treat cancer, was isolated, purified and the mode of its antineoplastic activity against sarcoma 180 ascites tumour cells investigated. When incubated with the tumour cells, 1 mg/ml dilution of C/M₂ killed more than two-thirds (73.3 %) of the tumour cells in two hours and the cells incubated with it for over two hours became non-viable and could not produce tumour when implanted into the mice. The minimum period of incubation rendering tumour cells incapable of inducing tumours in inoculated hosts was roughly in inverse proportion to the concentration of the drug in the incubation medium.