Authors: Jesabel C. Maghinay1 and Jether P. Sumpo2
1Secondary Education Department, College of Education, 2Natural Sciences and Mathematics Department,
College of Arts and Sciences Mindanao State University Buug, Datu Panas, Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay, Philippines
Email: jesabelmaghinay@msubuug.edu.ph1, jether.sumpo@msubuug.edu.ph2
ABSTRACT
Cancer is a condition in which a cell's mitotic division is uncontrolled. Cancer is the leading cause of death among all diseases, and because it is a complex disease, drug research for cancer has long been a promising subject in recent years. In this study, three least explored medicinal plants - black turmeric (Curcuma caesia), turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) and white ginger (Hedychium coronari-um) was investigated for their antimitotic potential as a blocking agent that inhibits cell division with the aim of developing a new anticancer drug from natural plant extracts. An Allium cepa L. Root Assay was conducted to determine the significant difference on the mitotic indices of the Allium cepa root tip cells as affected by the different rhizome extracts. The treatments used are the follow-ing: Treatment zero (T0) distilled water, Treatment one (T1) black turmeric extract, Treatment two (T2) turmeric extract, Treatment three (T3) white ginger extract; and Treatment four (T4) combination of all extracts. The A. cepa root tips were treated with the dif-ferent treatments and undergone fixation, incubation, dehydration, staining, squashing, and then examining the specimen under a light microscope. Data were collected through manual A. cepa root tip cell counting. Based on the results of the study, there is a highly significant difference on the antimitotic indices of the A. cepa root tip cells as affected by the different rhizome extracts and that the black turmeric extract showed the highest antimitotic property. This is due to the presence of tannins, terpenoids, flavonoid, alkaloid, phenol, phytosterol quinones and saponins that were found in black turmeric (Pakkirisamy, M. et al, 2017). Hence, it is recommended that black turmeric extract could be used as a blocking agent that inhibits cell division.
Keywords: antimitotic property, rhizome extracts, antimitotic index (AMI), A. cepa L. root assay