In vitro anticancer activity and cytotoxicity of Solarium nigrum on cancers and normal cell lines

In this study, eighty percent methanol and chloroform extracts of leaves and stems of Solarium nigrum were screened for in vitro anticancer activity using PC-3 human prostate cancer cell lines and Hela cervical cancer cells and cytotoxicity assays were performed using MTT assay and 3T3 NIH mouse embryo fibroblast cell line and CC-1, a rat Wistar hepatocyte cell line. All extracts in concentration 100 jig mL^-1 showed anticancer activity in PC-3 and Hela and the highest percentage of growth inhibition obtained from stems methanol extracts on Hela 91.11% followed by leaves and stems methanol extracts (74.28 and 80.49, respectively) on PC-3. For cytotoxicity the result obtained indicate that all extracts had non-toxic effect on CC-I and 3T3 cell lines with IC50> 100 jig mL^-1, except the leaves methanol extract showed the highest percentage of growth inhibition in 3T3 85.63 with IC₅₀ 17.37 jig mL^-1. The results obtained indicate that Solanum nigrum leaves and stems methanol extracts have anticancer activity on prostate cancer, cervical cancer and have non-toxic effect on 3T3 and CC-1. This result supports the traditional use of Solanum nigrum for the treatment of cancer in different regions of the Sudan.