Isolation of bioactive compounds from two orchid species and preliminary test of their cytotoxicity against T47D breast cancer cells

Research on plant natural products for screening of compounds with medicinal properties is mainly grow from the awareness on the use of herbal medicines and the side effects of most modern drugs. The potential of orchids in traditional medication has a long history, as indicated by ancient records on the use of many orchid species as medicinal plants. The objective of this study was identifying potential group of compounds with cytotoxic properties from orchid against T47D breast cancer cells. Two orchid species were used in this study, Dendrobium lasianthera and Arachnis flos-aeris. Chloroform, methanol, and aqueous extracts obtained from leaves, stem, and roots were tested for their cytotoxicity against T47D breast cancer cells to determine the most effective extract and fraction potential as anticancer. Determination on cytotoxicity was carried out using MTT assay, and cytotoxic property was indicated by IC₅₀ value with doxorubicine as a positive control. Serial fractionation processes using vacuum liquid chromatography was done to find the most effective group of compounds demonstrating cytotoxicity. The result show that stem of Dendrobium lasianthera chloroform extract had higher cytotoxic activity than other extracts. The IC₅₀ value of the most toxic combining fraction was 122,66 μg/ml. The result of the separation and purification truly increase the cytotoxicity effect of isolate against T47D breast cancer cells, proven by the IC₅₀ value of middle isolate was 37,11 μg/ml while other isolates were higher than those of doxorubicine (IC₅₀ = 61 μg/ml). TLC analysis showed that the most active compound obtained was terpenoid and phenolic.