The therapeutic effects of Ficus carica extract as antioxidant and anticancer agent

Abstract

Natural extracted ingredients are evolutionarily selected molecules and are used to control inflammation, and cancerous progression and transformation. Several studies have evaluated the beneficial properties of certain pharmaceutical molecules extracted from Ficus carica (FC). The current study aimed to investigate the antioxidant and anticancer properties of FC ethanolic leaves extract. The dried coarse powder of F. carica leaves was exhaustively extracted with ethanol. The resulting crude ethanolic F. carica extract (FCE) was assayed for total phenolic content and, antioxidant and anticancer activities, since both are interrelated. The antioxidant activity of the FCE was determined using DPPH as a standard stable free radical. The anticancer activity of the extract was determined against breast cancer (MCF7), hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), Colon cancer (CaCo-2), and a human laryngeal carcinoma (Hep-2) cell lines. The obtained results indicated a strong antioxidant activity of the extract with 1 mg/ml having 75.7% DPPH scavenging ability. The anti-cancer activities of the extract showed strong inhibition percentages against all the selected cell lines. The FCE had potent effects against both Hep2 and HepG2 cells with inhibition percentages ranged 80.7–66.9%. The properties of the FCE demonstrated here support our proposal of the validity of the traditional health claims of medicinal plants.