The Study of the Anthocyanin Extract Effect from The Hibiscus sabdariffa Plant on Skin Cancer

Abstract

Background: Anthocyanins are water-soluble phytochemicals that are essential pigments in fruits and vegetables. Anthocyanins represent an important subclass of flavonoids known for their biological and pharmacological activities. Anthocyanins have been reported to exhibit significant anticancer activities through multiple biological mechanisms. Here, we examined whether anthocyanins could specifically inhibit the proliferation of skin cancer cells.

Methods: After extracting the anthocyanin pigment from the Hibiscus sabdariffa plant using a solvent extraction method, the anticancer effect of the pigment at several doses was assessed by measuring the cell viability.

Results: The effect of the anthocyanin extract showed highly significant inhibition in the A375 cell line (p ≤ 0.05, p ≤ 0.01). The results were 73.99 ±5.04, 65.12 ±1.68, 55.59 ±0.99, 49.19 ±0.92 at concentrations of 50, 100, 200, 400 μg/ml, correspondingly. When compared to WRL-68, that were 91.08 ±0.87, 91.08 ±0.87, 77.55 ±1.93 and 71.14 ±0.47 μg/ml respectively. The 25 μg/ml anthocyanin extract showed significant inhibition in the A375 cell line, with an IC50 of 86.34 ±3.11 μg/ml, compared to 96.76 ±0.53 μg/ml in WRL-68. It was also noted that the decrease in cell viability is inversely proportional to anthocyanin concentration, with computed IC50s of 150.8 and 97.9 for the WRL-68 and A375 cell lines, respectively.

Conclusion: The study's findings enhanced knowledge of roselle anthocyanins' selected anti-cancer action on the skin cancer A375 cell line.