New approach for production of saturated fatty acids in cassava cell cultures as antibreast cancer agent

Arafa, Nermeen M.; Aly, Usama I.; Elsayed, Mahmoud Moawad; El-Bahr, Mohamed K.

doi:10.4103/epj.epj_33_20

New approach for production of saturated fatty acids in cassava cell cultures as antibreast cancer agent

Authors

Abstract

Background and objective
Cassava plant is one of the major economical crops, involved in many industrial applications and therapeutic purposes such as suppression of cancer cell activity. The present work targeted to assess saturated fatty acids and their derivatives in cassava cell cultures.
Materials and methods
Stem explants of growing plantlets were induced for calli on MS-medium supplemented with 1 mg/l naphthaleneacetic acid+0.5 mg/l benzylaminopurine. Medium containing 5 mg/l 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2.4-D) and 0.2 mg/l benzylaminopurine was selected for callus productivity. The extraction adequacy of aprotic polar (ethylacetate) and nonpolar (chloroform, -hexane) solvents was analyzed and evaluated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.
Results and conclusion
Chloroform callus extract contained mostly fatty acid methyl esters and fatty acid propyl esters. In contrast, -hexane extract contained higher amounts of fatty acid constituents in free form, such as palmitic acid (23.55%). Ethylacetate extract included the highest value of lauric acid (28.34%) in free form as well other fatty acids such as caprylic acid (14.525%), capric acid (2.53%), and enanthic acid (6.41%). Ethylacetate extract conferred the optimal efficiency to suppress the breast cancer cell prevalence (2.63 μg IC50), followed by hexanoic extract (3.44 μg IC50), and then chloroformic extract (6 μg IC50) recording the least value for cancer cell propagation. Potential of cassava as one of the medicinal valuable plants should be promoted for health-boosting purposes.

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