In vitro antiviral and cytotoxic screening of methanolic extract of Cassia auriculata flowers in HeLa, Vero, CRFK and HEL cell lines

Background

To investigate the in vitro antiviral and cytotoxic activities of methanolic extract of Cassia auriculata flowers in HeLa, Vero, CRFK and HEL Cell lines.

Methods

Polarity based cold maceration method was adopted for the extraction of flowers and the antiviral activity was assessed against herpes simplex-1 and 2, vaccinia, vesicular stomatitis, cox sackie, respiratory syncytical, feline corona, feline herpes, para influenza, reo-1, sindbis and punta toro viruses in different cell lines, such as Hel, HeLa, Crandell Reus feline kidney and Vero cell cultures. In parallel the cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT assay method.

Results

The methanolic extract possesses the strongest antiviral activity against herpes simplex-1(EC₅₀ = 50 μg/ml) and 2 (EC₅₀ = 45 μg/ml) viruses and moderate activity for remaining viruses (EC₅₀ = >100 μg/ml). The cytotoxicity results revealed that the extracts exhibited cytotoxicity above the range of 100 μg/ml.

Conclusion

The tested methanolic extract displayed an important source of anti-herpetic compound against the double stranded DNA enveloped Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 and II), further studies are needed to identify the exact compound for their antimicrobial action.