pharmacognostic profile and screening of anti-proliferative potential of methanolic extract of tripterygium wilfordii plant on wrl-68 cell line and function of polycystin‐1

Tripterygium wilfordii is a medicinal plant that plays a crucial role in health care programs, especially in developing countries, and had anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-fertility, anti-bacterial, and other therapeutic effects. this study was designed to determine the anti-proliferative effects of methanolic extract of t. wilfordii on the wrl-68 cell line and the function of polycystin‐1 (pc-1). the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (ic50) values were recorded in wrl-68 and aspc-1 cell lines as 193 μg/ml and 149.2 μg/ml, respectively, at 2- 2.55 and 2-2.2 μg/ml methanolic plant concentrations. the maximum cytotoxic activities of the extract on the growth inhibition of wrl-68 and aspc-1 were generally observed at 97.64% and 95.94% at extract concentrations of 50 μg/ml and 25 μg/ml, respectively. the pharmacognostic profile of t. wilfordii extract was found to be alkaloids, tannins, terpenoides, flavonoids, glycosides, and phenols. the extracts of t. wilfordii were tested through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showing four peaks representing mostly of 3- oxobutanol; ethyl acetate; acetic acid ethyl ester; chlorbromuron; 1-(methylthio)-, (e)-; n-hexadecanoic acid; tetradecanoic acid; and 9-octadecenoic acid. therefore, the results of this study revealed that the methanolic extract of t. wilfordii was more potential in inducing anti-proliferative activity of wrl-68 and aspc-1 human cell lines than the control. in addition, the current study was the first study that reported the anti-proliferative potential of t. wilfordii in the treatment of human embryonic liver wrl-68 cancer cells.