Curculigo Rhizoome Extract

Anticancer Research

The plant belonging to the family Hypoxidaceae is a small endangered plant speciesfound in the Western Ghats. This plant is used as one of the major ingredient in thefolk medicine (Ayurveda) preparations such as Kali or Shyah-Musali used for rejuvenation(Singh et al. 2006). It is a perennial shrub and has elongated and short fleshyroots. Its rhizome is 1 ft in length and pulpy. The plant is rich in flavone glycosides.Its tubers contain cycloartane-type triterpene glycosides called curculigo saponinsand curculigosides. They also contain phenyl glycosides, orcinol glycoside, corchiosideA, hentriacontanol, and an alkaloid, lycorine (Singh et al. 2006). The shrub ishighly beneficial for a number of ailments, and it is an important ingredient of manyAyurvedic preparations. It is reported to have immunostimulatory, aphrodisiac, hepatoprotective,antioxidant, antidiabetic, and anticancer activities (Venukumar andLatha 2002; Singh et al. 2006; Chauhan et al. 2010). An investigation was carried outto evaluate the tumor decreasing capacity of cyclophosphamide, a chemical antineoplastic drug when combined with the methanolic extract of C. orchioides inDalton’s lymphoma ascites-induced tumor model (Murali and Kuttan 2015). Theresults revealed the synergistic effects of the plant extract and cyclophosphamidewhich enhance the anticancer activities and reduced the toxic side effects of the syntheticdrug, cyclophosphamide. Likewise, in another recent study, its antiproliferativeactivity against the human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells was evidenced by Xiaet al. (2016). According to them, antitumor effect was mainly due to the induction ofapoptosis and enhancement of immune functions.