Analysis of the Cytotoxic Effect of Ethanolic Calendula Officinalis Plant Extract on Hepatic Carcinoma

Abstract

Asteraceae is a family of angiosperms, many members of which exhibit bioactivities against various carcinomas owing to their rich content of terpenes, terpenoids and flavonoids. Common examples are Artemisinin extracted from plants belonging to the genus Artemisia, and Dehydrocostus lactone extracted from the roots of plants belonging to the genus Aucklandia. This essay focuses on the effect of an extract of Calendula officinalis, a widely distributed plant of the Asteraceae family, commonly used as a natural source of chemicals for medical and supplement development, on liver carcinoma cells and normal fibroblasts for comparison. Hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 and human fibroblast cell line HFF were used. The CCK-8 cell viability assay was applied to determine the inhibitory effect of the extract on cancerous cells and the promotional effect on HFF cells. The result showed that Calendula officinalis extract has a certain concentration of chemicals with a certain degree of anti-proliferative effect and strong specificity.