Determination of Lupeol, a Cytotoxic Compound Against SW620 Cells in the Extracts of Ha-Rak Recipe

Introduction: Ha-Rak is an herbal recipe that has been stated by Ministry of Public Health, Thailand to utilize as the herbal medicines for the treatment of fever. The recipe comprises the roots of five plants including Capparis micracantha, Clerodendrum indicum, Ficus racemosa, Harrisonia perforata and Tiliacora triandra as its ingredients. Methods: The extracts of Ha-Rak and its five herbal principles were evaluated for their potential on the cytotoxicity against SW620 cancer cell lines using the MTT assay and an active compound, lupeol which was found as a cytotoxic compound in the herbal ingredients of Ha-Rak was further determined. A chromatographic method for investigating that compound in the extracts was developed herein. The analytical method comprised a cholesterol-coated C18 column, a mixture of acetonitrile and methanol (70:30) with a flow rate of 2 mL/min, and a diode-array UV wavelength at 210 nm as a stationary phase, mobile phase, and detector, respectively. Results: The amount of lupeol in the extracts of Ha-Rak and the herbal principles, which possessed cytotoxicity against SW620 cell lines with the IC₅₀ values of 30.10-212.24 μg/mL displayed variously in the range of 4.50-250.62 mg/100g. The difference of the contents among the extracts was noted significantly (P < 0.05). The correlation between the lupeol contents and their cytotoxic performances on the tested cell lines was observed in our investigation. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that Ha-Rak recipe contains a promising cytotoxic compound, lupeol and it will support the recipe to subject further pharmacological studies on anticancer activity.