IN VITRO CYTOTOXITY EFFECT OF METHANOL EXTRACT OF WATTAKAKA VOLUBILIS (leaf) AGAINST BREAST CANCER CELL LINE.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world';s population still rely mainly on traditional medicines for their basic health care. During the last decades of the 20th century, medical researchers have developed new methods for cancer treatment by combining surgery with chemotherapy, radiations and various phytochemicals obtained from different plant species. It is important to note that chemotherapy not only kills the cancer cells but it also has some side effects on normal cells too. Medicines obtained from plants have less or no side-effects. Present investigation is mainly concerned with the documentation of anti-cancer plant species around the globe. The present study has been formulated to understand the in vitro anticancer property elicited by Wattakaka volubilis Wight. The cytotoxic activity of extract of Wattakaka volubilis leaves was determined by MTT assay against cell lines of breast cancer (MCF-7) and HeLa . Cell proliferation was measured based on the ability of metabolic active cells to cleave the yellow tetrazolium salt MTT [3?(4, 5?dimethyl–thiazole?2?yl) ?2, 5?diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] to form insoluble purple formazan crystals. The findings of the present study suggest that the methanolic extract of leaves of Wattakaka volubilis possess excellent anticancer potential that might be used for therapeutic purposes for cancer treatment with proper evaluation procedures.