Dr. Vikas Sharma
Mallotus philippinensis, popularly known as “Kamala tree or sindur” about 10-20 m height, with a trunk 1 m round, is distributed throughout India in evergreen and deciduous forests up to 1500 m. It has long been valued as the source of dyeing material known as kamala. Kamala powder is used as an antihelmintic and cathartic in traditional medicine. Investigations on kamala dye derived from the fruits of Mallotus philippinensis have afforded various flavonoids.
The seeds of the plant contain a poisonous glycoside as well as 20% fixed oil from which ? and ?-kamlolenic acids (18-hydroxyl-9,11,13-octadecatrienoic acids) were isolated. Two new chalcone derivatives (kamalachalcone A and kamalachalcone B) with a unique ring system were also isolated from the plant. The pharmacological actions of kamala tree are diverse and amazing as it possesses antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antifertility, antifilarial, antispasmodic, antilithotropic, stimulant, purgative, wound healing and cardiac depressant properties.
Cancer is a deadly disease facing the humanity today and has emerged as an important health problem in the developed / developing countries and recognized as the important cause of morbidity, mortality, disability in India also. Cancer cases related mortality on rise in J&K during past few years with the total of 11,815 cancer cases and 5,198 mortality cases have been reported in the state during the current year. Most of the drugs used in cancer chemotherapy exhibit cell toxicity and can induce genotoxic, carcinogenic and teratogenic effects in non tumor cells. Therefore, the research for alternative drugs of natural origin, which are less toxic, endowed with fewer side effects and more potent in their mechanism of action, is an important research line. A number of exciting researches suggest that traditional medicinal plants contain an abundance of polyphenolic compounds, terpenoids, sulphur compounds, pigments and other natural antioxidants, that have been associated with protection from or treatment of conditions such as cancer.
Our Jammu region has great botanical diversity, but very few of them have been subjected to accepted scientific evaluation for their potential anticancer effects. Therefore, researchers from Division of Biochemistry, SKUAST-Jammu in collaboration with the Scientists from Cancer Pharmacology Division, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM-CSIR), Jammu collected M. philippinensis from Nandni Hills of Jammu district and evaluated / tested its in vitro cytotoxic effect against various human cancer cells. The investigation yielded very interesting and significant consensus from medicinal view point as an active ingredient was isolated from the fruit part of the plant with high in vitro cytotoxic potential against human cancer cells.
In vitro assay for cytotoxic activity of glands/hairs obtained from the fruits of Mallotus philippinensis has been carried out against 14 human cancer cell lines from nine different origins and results revealed that the extracts of the plant showed highest in vitro anticancer effect against all the 14 human cancer cell lines. The fractions of the same extract were obtained and it was found that the significant cytotoxic potential was produced by the chloroform soluble fraction as this fraction inhibited the growth of ten human cancer cell lines from seven different tissues. Further, the chromatographic analysis of the said fraction afforded a polyphenolic molecule and this drug at the concentration of 1×10?5M and 1×10?4M suppressed the proliferation of eight human cancer cell lines from six different tissues and proved its exceptionally remarkable in vitro anticancer efficiency.
What is quite remarkable in these observations is that the cytotoxic effect shown by sindur was much stronger than that shown by 5-flurouracil, adriamycin, mitomycin-C and taxol (standard drugs for cancer) and served as positive controls in the investigation. The results obtained confirmed the therapeutic potency of Jammu kamala tree and in addition these results form a good basis for selection of this plant for further phytochemical and pharmacological analysis. Moreover, the research support the folkloric usage and showed that it possesses certain cytotoxic constituents that can be used for developing anticancer agents for cancer therapy. Thus, we can say that the active ingredient that happens to be a polyphenolic compound has the potential to serve as a candidate drug for cancer therapy and may very well be exploited for cancer treatment to provide a great promise and service to cancer patients. This active molecule isolated from the fruit part of kamala tree was observed to be most cytotoxic against human cancer cell lines from colon, ovary and neuroblastoma origin. Therefore, this anticancer molecule can be modified through chemical means into a new drug for the management of neuroblastoma, ovarian and colon carcinomas. Further, the advance research is going on in the Division of Biochemistry, SKUAST-Jammu for mechanistic evaluation (cell cycle analysis) of the possible mechanism of action of active ingredient.
(The author is Assistant Professor (Biochemistry), Faculty of Basic Sciences, SKUAST-JAMMU)
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