ZEBRAFISH AS BIOACTIVITY GUIDED DRUG SCREENING ANIMAL MODEL TO IDENTIFY ANTI-ANGIOGENIC COMPOUNDS FROM SAUDI MEDICINAL PLANTS
The phytochemicals and botanical crude extracts have proven their efficacy as natural antiangiogenic agents with minimum toxicities, there is a need to explore varieties of medicinal plants for novel antiangiogenic compounds. More than 100 herbs and medicinal plants found in Saudi Arabia were screened in this study.
Rumex vesicarius L. (Humeidh), is an annual herbal plant with proven medicinal values. The chloroform stem extract showed significant level of antiangiogenic activity in zebrafish angiogenic assay on a dose dependent manner. Thirty five (35) bioactive compounds were identified by gas chromatography mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) analysis in the stem extract of Rumex vesicarius.
The anticancer activity was evaluated in MCF7, Lovo, and Caco-2, HepG2 cancer cell lines. Chloroform extract of stem exhibited strong anticancer activity in all tested cancer cells with IC50 values in micro molar range.
Based on these results, it is recommended that formulation prepared from R. vesicarius can further be tested in clinical trials in order to explore its therapeutic potential as an effective and safe natural anticancer product.
