Babli Halder, Shruti Singh, Suman S. Thakur
Abstract
In Ayurveda, Withania somnifera is commonly known as Ashwagandha, its roots are specifically used in medicinal and clinical applications. It possesses numerous therapeutic actions which include anti-inflammatory, sedative, hypnotic and narcotic. Extracts from this plant have been reported for its anticancer properties. In this study we evaluated for the first time, the cytotoxic effect of Withania root extract on human malignant melanoma A375 cells. The crude extract of Withania was tested for cytotoxicity against A375 cells by MTT assay. Cell morphology of treated A375 cells was visualized through phase contrast as well as fluorescence microscopy. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to check DNA fragmentation of the crude extract treated cells. Crude extract of Withania root has the potency to reduce viable cell count in dose as well as time dependent manner. Morphological change of the A375 cells was also observed in treated groups in comparison to untreated or vehicle treated control. Apoptotic body and nuclear blebbing were observed in DAPI stained treated cells under fluorescence microscope. A ladder of fragmented DNA was noticed in treated cells. Thus it might be said that the crude water extract of Withania somnifera has potent cytotoxic effect on human malignant melanoma A375 cells.
Citation: Halder B, Singh S, Thakur SS (2015) Withania somnifera Root Extract Has Potent Cytotoxic Effect against Human Malignant Melanoma Cells. PLoS ONE 10(9): e0137498. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0137498
Editor: Salvatore V. Pizzo, Duke University Medical Center, UNITED STATES
Received: March 16, 2015; Accepted: August 18, 2015; Published: September 3, 2015
Copyright: © 2015 Halder et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper.
Funding: The authors are thankful to the Department of Biotechnology, India and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India for funding.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Source: PLOS ONE
