PHYTOCHEMICAL AND CYTOTOXIC STUDIES OF POLYPHENOLIC FLAVONOIDS CONTENTS OF URTICA DIOICA

Abstract

The polyphenolic flavonoids found in several medical plants and herbal remedies containing flavonoids, have been used in folk medicine around the world. The weight of laboratory studies, epidemiological investigation and human clinical trials indicate that polyphenolic chemistry have important effects on cancer chemoprevention and chemo –therapy. Urtica dioica (UD) "stinging nettle" has been consumed for centuries as a phyto-medical agent and as a food substance. Although its history associated with alternative remedies was remarkable but the number of its cytotoxic studies are rather scarce. Therefore, more focused phyto and medicinal chemistry studies are required to establish whether such dietary effects of Urtica dioica ’s extract can be exploited to achieve even preliminary cytotoxic effect on Hep -2 cell line. The major compounds detected and isolated from the ethanolic extract of the aerial parts of Urtica dioica were determined as flavonoids by chromatographic, chemical and spectral (UV, IR) methods. In this paper, the down ward viability -concentration curve of the ethanolic extract of the Urtica dioica ‘s methanolic extract, using Hep-2 cell line indicate its positive cytotoxic activity. The promising results will stimulate the full phytochemical and cytotoxic studies of flavonoids for cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy. We believe that this one cell line study may be contradictory in part, and gives a conclusion that there's still a long way to go until we do a full phytochemical investigation for Urtica dioica 's different polyphenolic compounds; several works addressing this matter are referred to predict a full cytotoxic profile of Urtica dioica.