• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.190-195
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• 2004

The anticancer potency of the ethanolic extract of Terminalia arjuna on N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN) induced hepatocellular carcinoma in Wistar albino rats was studied. Single intraperitoneal injection of DEN was administrated to induce liver cancer. After two weeks, phenobarbital (PB) was given orally for fourteen weeks to promote the cancer. The cancer bearing animals treated with ethanolic extract of T.arjuna (400 mg/kg body weight) for 28 days. Nucleic acids such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) were estimated in liver and kidney of control and experimental animals. Certain marker enzymes viz, alanine aminotransaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransaminase (AST), acid phosphatase (ACP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), 5'-nucleotidase (5'ND) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were assayed in serum, liver and kidney of control and experimental animals. The levels of DNA and RNA were significantly increased in cancer bearing animals. The activities of ALT, AST, ACP, ALP, 5'ND, and LDH were significantly (P<0.001) increased in serum of cancer bearing animals. On the other hand, the levels of ALT, AST were decreased (P<0.001) and ACP, ALP, 5'ND, and LDH were significantly increased (P<0.001) in liver and kidney. These changes were reversed to near normal in drug treated animals. These observations suggest that the ethanolic extract of T.arjuna possess anticancer activity.