Breast cancer is the leading factor of mortality among women globally. According to the World Health Organization (2015), breast cancer is the second most common cancer after lung cancer; and contributes to nearly 15% of all cancer death among women in 2015. Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) is a highly nutritious vegetable with various therapeutic benefits including anticancer. The therapeutic benefits are attributed to its bioactive compounds. Thus, study on the bioactive compounds of M. oleifera using various extraction methods with different extracting solvents have been the main focus of many researchers. Methods: The current study was carried out using Ultrasound Assisted Sequential Extraction (UASE) method and three extracting solvents (99.7% ethanol, 50% ethanol and deionised water) with ascending polarity. The yielded extracts were tested for possible anticancer effects against human breast adenocarcinoma cell line, MCF-7 and non-tumorigenic cell line, MCF-10A using microtitrate tetrazolium (MTT) assay. Results: The IC50 values of the 99.7% ethanol, 50% ethanol and deionised water extracts were 25, 200 and 180 μg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: M. oleifera could be a potential preventative and/or therapeutic agent for breast cancer, either used alone or as an adjunct to the standard chemotherapeutic drugs.
Melastoma is a genus that belongs to the Melastomataceae family and consists of 50–70 species distributed around India, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific Island. Numerous species of this plant show potential therapeutic purposes. This review summarizes the scientific findings on the ethnobotanical uses, phytochemistry and pharma- cological activities of Melastoma sp. The leaves of Melastoma sp. was widely used by Asian as decoction for the remedy of gastrointestinal disorder apart from root, which was consumed as juice for skin diseases, fever and pain. Majority of the scientific studies focused on M. malabathricum showing high antimicrobial activity towards selected gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria from different parts of the plant. In vitro studies showed that Melastoma sp. possessed anti-coagulant, antioxidant, antiproliferative and immunomodulatory activities. Apart from in vitro, various in vivo studies have been conducted involving methanolic leaf extracts using Sprague Dawley rats for inhi- bition of anti-ulcer, anti-nociceptive, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and anti-diabetic activities. Flavonoids, triterpenes, tannins, saponins and steroids are the main classes of secondary metabolites identified from Melastoma sp. Kaempferol derivatives exhibited significant main constituents from the flowers and leaves using various semi polar solvent extracts. Few phytosterols were also isolated from the leaves extract albeit the absence of alkaloids. This review shows that Melastoma sp. is an important genus of Melastomataceae family, however, the phytochemical and pharmacological findings of various species in this genus are still limited, indicating a great opportunity to explore new therapeutic activities with novel bioactive constituents.