Biological Activities and GCMS Analysis of the Methanolic Extract of Christia vespertilionis (L.F.) Bakh. F. Leaves

Christia vespertilionis (L.F) Bakh. F. (red butterfly wing) is commonly used as a herbal medicine to treat symptoms of many diseases. The present study aimed to determine the in vitro antimalarial and cytotoxic activities as well as investigate the chemical compositions of the methanolic extract of C. vespertilionis leaves (CVME). The antimalarial activity of CVME against a chloroquine-sensitive (3D7) strain of Plasmodium falciparum was assessed by using a malarial SYBR Green I fluorescence-based (MSF) assay. The cytotoxic effect of CVME on cancerous (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7) and noncancerous (NIH/3T3) cell lines were evaluated by using methyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay. Chemical constituents of CVME were analysed by using a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS). CVME exhibited a moderate antimalarial activity with an IC50 value of 43.87 ± 2.04 µg/mL. CVME is considered as weak cytotoxic and significantly inhibited proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells with an IC50 value of 37.45 ± 1.05 µg/mL (p<0.05) as compared to standard MCF-7 (IC50>100 μg/mL) and NIH/3T3 cells (IC50>100 μg/mL). This effect is selectively cytotoxic towards certain cancerous cells only. GCMS analysis suggests that CVME potentially contains several pharmacologically bioactive compounds such as tetrahydro-2-methyl- thiophene (61.77%), phytol (8.59%), 10-undecenoic acid (5.00%), 6-methyl heptyl-2-propanoate  (4.96%) and 2-(2-benzothiazolylthio)-1-(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)-ethanone  (2.70%) that might possess antimalarial and cytotoxic activities. It implies that CVME has selective cytotoxic activity against the breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) and possesses an antimalarial activity against the 3D7 malaria parasite, suggesting the presence of bioactive compounds in C. vespertilionis leaves that could be a potential source of phytochemicals with high medicinal value to be used in cancer and malaria treatment.     Keywords: Christia vespertilionis, antimalarial activity, anticancer activity, cytotoxic activity, bioactive compounds.