COMPARISON OF THE ALKYLATING ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS AND ETHANOL EXTRACTS OF MORINDA LUCIDA ROOT BARK WITH CHLORAMBUCIL

Abstract

Plants have long been used to treat and manage non-communicable diseases. Morinda lucida also known as ‘Oruwo’
in the South-western part of Nigeria is a medium-sized tree with a crooked hole and rather short twisted branches. It
belongs to the family Rubicaeae. The anticancer activity of Morinda lucida has been reported in literature. However,
the mechanism of the anticancer activity has not been fully elucidated, especially its alkylating property. Alkylating
drugs transfer alkyl groups to DNA and cause a disruption in structure, leading to breakage of DNA. This research
aims to compare the alkylating activity of aqueous and ethanolic root bark extracts of M. lucida with a reference
drug, chlorambucil. Aqueous (AML) and ethanol (EML) extract of M. lucida root bark were prepared by maceration
in water and ethanol respectively. Alkylating activity of varied concentration of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of M.
lucida root bark and chlorambucil was assessed using the 4-(4-nitrobenzyl) pyridine (NBP) as a DNA model.
Absorbance was read at 540nm at different time intervals (5, 10, 30 and 60 min), and this corresponds to the extent
of alkylation of extracts and drug. The results indicate that EML had comparable alkylating activity with
chlorambucil. EML and chlorambucil at 1000μg/ml showed the highest alkylating activities after 60 minutes with
absorbance of 0.890 and 0.929 respectively. EML showed more potent alkylating activity compared to chlorambucil
and AML.