• The anticancer effect of Malva sylvestris extract on human glioblastoma U87 cell line
  • Fatemeh Davoodi dehaghani,1 Saeideh Sajadi,2,* Anis Dorchin,3 Nikoo Haghani Zadeh,4 Yeganeh Azari,5
    1. Department of Biology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
    2. Department of Biology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
    3. Department of Biology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
    4. Department of Chemistry, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
    5. Department of Biology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.


  • Introduction: Glioblastoma is a rapidly growing and aggressive brain tumor that attacks the tissues near the brain and spinal cord and in many cases does not respond well to various drug treatments. Malva sylvestris is a medicinal herb and its flowers, leaves and seeds have been used for many years. extract of this plant is used in traditional medicine to treat inflammatory and infectious diseases and heal wounds.
  • Methods: In this study the effects of Malva sylvestris hydroalcoholice extract were searched by MTT assay on human glioblastoma U87 cell line . The MTT assay is a colorimetric assay for assessing cell viability and metabolic activity in different treatments. NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductase enzymes are capable of reducing the tetrazolium dye, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, to an insoluble formazan, which has a purple color with appropriate absorption in 570 nm. As a scale, IC50 was determined for this extract and this cell line. In cellular researches, IC50 is a quantitative measure that indicates how much of an inhibitory substance (for example a herbal extract) is needed to inhibit cell growth by 50%.
  • Results: The results of this investigation after two days compared to the control and with three repetitions, showed that the death of cancer cells when exposed to concentrations of 0.005 to 0.8 miligrams/ml of the extract of this plant has an almost concentration-dependent trend. By drawing a graph of cell viability percentage in different concentrations of the extract, IC50 was determined, and the optimal concentration was 0.24 mg/ml.
  • Conclusion: The aerial parts of this plant are composed of several compounds, including mucilage polysaccharides, tocopherols, carotenoids, and various flavonoids such as anthocyanin, luteolin, kaempferol and similar compounds. It is still not possible to say that the observed anticancer effect is related to which of the compounds of this plant, but further research and isolation of compounds and treatment of glioblastoma cells with each of the constituent compounds of this plant will clarify this issue.
  • Keywords: cancer Malva sylvestris glioblastoma U87 herbal medicine