Screening of Twenty-one Ethiopian Medicinal Plants for their Antiproliferative Activity against Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia (MV4-11) Cell Line

In vitro antiproliferative activities of the 80% methanol extracts of 21 traditionally used Ethiopian medicinal plants were studied using human acute myeloid leukemia (MV4-11) cell line. Among the tested plants, Euphorbia schimperiana Scheele and Gnidia involucrata Steud. ex A. Rich. exhibited  significant antiproliferative activity with GI50 values of 20.6 ± 10.3 μg/ml and 16.6 ± 12.3 μg/ml, respectively. The active extracts were further fractionated using n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and water, and the antiproliferative assay results indicated that the n-hexane (GI50 = 0.8 ± 0.2 μg/ml) and ethyl acetate (GI50 = 6.1 ± 0.6 μg/ml) fractions of E. schimperiana and G. involucrate, respectively, demonstrated better antiproliferative activity when compared with their respective hydroalcoholic extracts. The findings of this study suggest that further phytochemical studies on the active fractions may lead to the discovery of novel anticancer compounds. Keywords: antiproliferative activity, Ethiopian medicinal plants, acute myeloid leukemia cell line, Euphorbia schimperiana, Gnidia involucrata