Antioxidant and reactive oxygen species scavenging properties of 70% methanol-in-water extracts of fruits of the plants Terminalia chebula, Terminalia bellirica and Emblica officinalis (respectively Harra, Bahera and Amala in Hindi) were reported by another group in our institute (1). The efficacy of these and other plant extracts in prolonging lives of mice suffering from laboratory-induced cancer (ascitis) were tested by the same group, though hitherto unpublished (2). These plants are already documented in India for their medicinal use for several other diseases (3), and popular as an ayurvedic tonic called ‘trifala’. We have investigated the effect of including these extracts in concentrations 30 μg/ml, 60 μg/ml and 90 μg/ml along with 1 mM deoxynucleoside concentrations taken as standard Fenton-reaction mediated in vitro damage assays (4-6). For all four deoxynucleosides, it is found that the fruit extract enhances the amount of Fenton-reaction mediated damage, amount of enhancement increasing with amount of plant extract added. It is likely that these plants prove beneficial in cancer due to this enhancement of nucleoside damage rather than its reduction (as scavengers).

References

1. B. Hazra, R. Sarkar, S. Biswas and N. Mandal, B M C Complementary and Alternative Medicine 10, 20 (2010).
2. S. Biswas and N. Mandal, private communication to R.C. (2008).
3. P. Kaushik and A. K. Dhiman, Medicinal Plants and Raw Drugs of India, 255-257, 254-255 and 484-486, Dehradun, Bishen Singh and Mahendra Pal Singh (1999).
4. Y. Luo, E. S. Henle and S. Linn, J. Biol. Chem. 271, 21167-21176 (1996).
5. E. S. Henle, Y. Luo, W. Gassmann and S. Linn, J. Biol. Chem. 271, 21177-21186 (1996).
6. Y. Luo, E. Henle, R. Chattopadhyaya, R. Jin and S. Linn, Methods in Enzymology 234, 51-59 (1994).