Butea Monosperma Shows Anti-cancer and Anti-Oxidant Activity: In-vitro and In vivo Study

Breast cancer is one of the predominant cancers in Indian subcontinent and the global scenario is not very different. Treatment of this type of cancer is possible by chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy, which relieve the patient; however, off target activity and severe toxicity of non-cancerous cells remained the major drawbacks of these chemotherapeutics. In order to overcome these issues, modern cancer therapeutics emphasizes the implication of natural bioactive compounds. In this current piece of work, we have studied the anti-cancer potentiality of Butea monosperma flower in in vitro breast cancer cells. Various extracts of this flower were found to be non-toxic to breast epithelial cells but toxic to breast cancer cells. However, the methanol extract of this flower was most effective amongst all other extracts. Data suggest that Butea monosperma flower induce DNA damage mediated apoptosis and inhibit cell proliferation, angiogenesis and metastasis. It also inhibits the angiogenesis and metastasis in xenograft mice model system. Moreover, the anti-cancer phenomenon was found to be induction of inflammatory cytokines mediated oxidative stress in breast cancer. Collectively, Butea monosperma flower shows excellent cancer therapeutics in order to induce DNA damage, inhibit angiogenesis and metastasis simultaneously.