Evaluation of DNA strand-scission activity of the Korean indigenous plants

Abstract

The methanol extracts of 42 Korean indigenous plants were evaluated for the DNA strand-scission activity. As a result, the 17 extracts were found to be active in the criteria of IC50<25 μg/ml. Among others, the MeOH extracts of Caesalpinia sappan and Mucuna birdwoodiana showed the most potent DNA strand-scission activity with IC50 values of 5.9 and 4.9 μg/ml, respectively. Therefore, the partition and fractionation for C. sappan were performed and tested in the DNA strand-scission assay system for further bioassay-guided fractionation.