Abstract:Bidens biternata (Lour.)Merr. & Sheriff, belongs to the family Asteraceae, is an erect annual herb,up to 1 m height, a wide spread weed of cultivated areas. This plant is common,particularly in Western Ghats regions of Kerala state. It is used as a leafyvegetable by Paniya, Chetti, Kani and Kattunaayika tribes of Waynadu Districtsin Kerala and also to cure hepatitis, cold, cough, dysentery, asthma etc.Phytochemical constituents are responsible for medicinal activity of ethnomedicinal plant B. biternata. In the present study, crude methanol extract and isolated bioactivecompound of B. biternata leaves was analyzed for its in vitroanticancer activity. The anticancer activity was evaluated by using differentcell lines like L929, H9C2 and A375. In the MTT assay of crude methanol extract, the percentage ofviability of the normal cell line L929 were found to be 64.2%, 53.2% and 49.1%when crude sample was applied in a concentration of 100 µg ml-1, 500µg ml-1 and 1000 µg ml-1respectively. In quercetin thepercentage of cell viability of L929 were found to be 51.04%, 47.28% and36.27%. The percentage of cell viability of H9C2 cell line were found to be90.86%, 64.39% and 40.26% and forisolated compound quercetin, 86.17%, 58.42% and 28.15% for sample concentration 100 µg ml-1,500 µg ml-1 and 1000 µg ml-1respectively. In the MTTassay of crude methanol extract, the percentage of viability of the A375cell line werefound to be 94.17%, 70.14% and 44.58% and isolated compound quercetin, 92.14%,68.34% and 38.26%. The resultsrevealed that the isolated compound quercetin (3, 3’, 4’, 5, 7-pentahydroxyflavones) of B. biternata possessed high anticancer activity socould be used as an effective therapeutic agent against cancer disorders.
Keywords: Bidens biternata, L929, H9C2, A375, MTT assay.