Mentha Arvensis Is an Aromatic Herb

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Mentha arvensis (MA) commonaly known as Mint or Pudina, belongs to family Lamiaceae. It is aromatic herb traditionally used as antiseptic, anthelmintic, diuretic, digestive, expectorent and cardio tonic. In current study, in vitro cytotoxic activity of crude whole plant extracts of Mentha arvensis was evaluated by Sulforhodamine B assay on three human cancer cell-lines of different tissues i.e. A-549(lung), MCF-7(breast) and COLO-205 (colon). Methanol extract of Mentha arvensis was observed to be significantly more cytotoxic in dose dependent manner than Petroleum ether extract of Mentha arvensis with IC50 ranging from 120-165 µg/ml for chosen cell lines. Hemolytic activity on human RBCs was also checked. Crude extracts of MA were found to have no hemolytic effect on RBCs suggesting membrane destabilization is not the mechanism of action. Study thus suggests potential anti-tumor activity of Mentha arvensis and need for further study to identify active components and understand their mechanism of actions.

Keywords: Mentha arvensis, Antitumor Drug Screening Assays, A549, MCF-7, COLO-205

Mentha arvensis (Family- Lamiaceae) is erect branched, strongly aromatic herb that stems up to 75 cm long. Leaves are elliptic to oblong-ovate, 5 cm long, short-petioled, toothed margins, rounded or blunt tipped. Plant has hairy lilac to light blue axillary flowers[1]. It is commonly known as ‘Pudina’, ‘Mint’, ‘Wild mint’ or ‘Corn mint’. Though mainly found in western Himalayas, it is cultivated throughout the India. According to Indian Ayurvedic medicine Mentha arvensis is used as antiseptic, anthelmintic, diuretic, antispasmodic, stimulant, stomachic, carminative, digestive, emmenagogue, expectorent and cardio tonic. It is useful in ulcers, wound...

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...emolytic activity on erythrocytes was also studied for methanol and petroleum ether extracts of Mentha arvensis. Total hemolysis was obtained using 100 μl of sterile D/W after three hours of incubation at room temperature. Test extracts did not possess any hemolytic activity against erythrocytes (Table 2). Lack of hemolytic activity suggests that crude extracts of MA are protecting biological membrane and hence membrane destabilization is not the mechanism of killing cancer cells[17].
Cytotoxic activity of MA oil is already reported on MCF-7 and Lan-CAP cell lines by Husain et al.[18]. Present study reports for the first time in vitro cytotoxic activity of successive methanol extract of MA on cancer cell lines suggesting its potential antitumor activity. Hence further studies are required for identification of active principles and understanding mechanism of action.

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