Anticancer Activity of Ruellia britoniana Flower on Cervical HeLa Cancer Cells

Introduction: Cervical cancer ranks 4^th in terms of the mortality rates and incidence of all cancers in women (GLOBOCAN 2018). In last decade, there is a significance progress in cancer therapy followed by an increase in the cost of cancer treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to have therapeutic innovations that are expected to reduce the cost of cervical cancer therapy. One therapeutic innovation that is currently being intensively carried out is herbal medicine. Some researchers have found that some plant extracts have anti-cancer properties that can be an alternative treatment for cancer, such as some plants with the genus Ruellia, such as Ruellia tuberosa and Ruellia squarrosa. However, research on the anticancer activity of the species of Ruellia brittoniana, especially the flowers, is still limited. Objective: Aim of this study is to examine anti-cervical cancer activity of R. brittoniana flower. Methods: R.brittoniana flowers were obtained from Depok, West Java, Indonesia. The flowers are extracted gradually with n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol solvents. The extracts were evaluated for anticancer activity by MTT method. Results: IC₅₀ values for ethanol extract, ethyl acetate extract and n-hexane extract of R. brittoniana flowers are 116.55 ppm, 52.62 ppm, and 123.09 ppm, respectively, which indicating that ethanol extract has moderate anticancer activity, while ethyl acetate and n-hexane extract of R. brittoniana flowers have weak anticancer activity. Conclusion: Ethanol, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane extract of R.brittoniana flowers have a potential to become natural anti-cervical cancer.