Inhibitory and anti-Cancer Effects of Crataegus azarolus Extracts on Gastric Cancer Cell Line (AGS)

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most frequent types of cancer around the world and most of the drugs which are used currently as anti-cancer chemotherapy hold adverse side effects on normal cells and tissues, that calls for a strong need to find new agents to prevent and treat GC. Extracts from certain plants contain compounds with health potentials with minimal side effects; one such plant is the Crataegus azarolus commonly called hawthorn. Extracts of hawthorn have been found to exert negative effects on the viability of many types of cancer via a number of pathways both in vivo and in vitro . Herein, we aimed to investigate the possible anti-proliferative effects of methanolic and acetone extracts of C. azarolus leaves on human adenocarcinoma gastric cell line (AGS). Standard phytochemical analysis were used to qualitatively characterize leaf extracts contents. AGS cells were treated for 48 h with different concentrations of both extracts (10, 50, 100, 250, and 500 µg/ml). Our results demonstrated that the methanolic crude extract showed significantly higher anti-proliferative effects than those of acetone, at both 250 and 500 µg/ml concentrations respectively, when estimated by MTT assay at (p< 0.001) with an IC 50 values 293.7 µg/ml. On the other hand, acetone extract treatment showed that 500 µg/ml had a high significant effect at (p< 0.001) with an IC 50 values 576.6 µg/ml. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicated that leaf extracts of C. azarolus limited the growth of AGS.