Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn. (roselle) is a polyphenol rich fruit. This study aimed to identify the neuroprotective effect of
roselle on LPS-induced cell proliferation and nitric oxide-induced free radical in microglia and neuroblastoma cells.
MTT assay was used to identify the appropriate concentration of roselle and LPS for microglia and neuroblastoma cells
proliferation study. Griess assay were used to determine the level of nitric oxide accumulated based on the reaction of
Griess to estimate the activity of iNOS in nitric oxide production. The results showed that roselle at the concentration of
50 μg/mL and 100 μg/mL and LPS at concentration of 1 μg/mL does not give cytotoxic effect towards microglia C8-B4 and
neuroblastoma LN18 cells. The roselle treatment at 50 μg/mL and 100 μg/mL showed a protective effect on LPS-induced
microglia C8-B4 cells. However, in neuroblastoma LN18 cells, no protective effect was seen on both 50 μg/mL and 100
μg/mL of roselle treatment following induction with 1 μg/mL of LPS. On the other hand, the production of nitric oxide
(NO) was reduced when LPS-induced microglia C8-B4 cells were treated with 50 μg/mL of roselle. Treatment of roselle
at concentration 100 μg/mL on LPS-induced neuroblastoma LN18 cells also reduced the production of nitric oxide. As a
conclusion, roselle had the ability to give neuroprotective effect by the inhibition of LPS induction activity on microglia
activation for normal and cancer cells at different concentrations