Research Article Anti-Proliferative Effect and Phytochemical Analysis of Cymbopogon citratus Extract Mohammed F. Halabi 1,2 and Bassem Y. Sheikh 2,3,4 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2 Al-Moalim Mohamed Awad Center for Scientiic Miracles of Prophetic Medicine, College of Medicine, Taibah University, 3001 Madinah, Saudi Arabia 3 Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Taibah University, 3001 Madinah, Saudi Arabia 4 Faculty of Medicine, P.O. Box 30001, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia Correspondence should be addressed to Bassem Y. Sheikh; amohd2000@yahoo.com Received 30 December 2013; Revised 15 February 2014; Accepted 21 February 2014; Published 27 March 2014 Academic Editor: Yih-Shou Hsieh Copyright © 2014 M. F. Halabi and B. Y. Sheikh. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. he antiproliferative and antioxidant potential of Cymbopogon citratus (Lemon grass) extracts were investigated. he extracts were isolated by solvent maceration method and thereater subjected to antiproliferative activity test on ive diferent cancer cells: human colon carcinoma (HCT-116), breast carcinoma (MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231), ovarian carcinoma (SKOV-3 and COAV), and a normal liver cell line (WRL 68). he cell viability was determined using MTT assay. he DPPH radical scavenging assay revealed a concentration dependent trend. A maximum percentage inhibition of 45% and an IC50 of 278 g/mL were observed when aqueous extract was evaluated. In contrast, 48.3% and IC50 of 258.9 g/mL were observed when 50% ethanolic extract was evaluated. Both extracts at concentration of 50 to 800 g/mL showed appreciative metal chelating activity with IC50 value of 172.2 ± 31 g/mL to 456.5 ± 30 g/mL. Depending on extraction solvent content, extract obtained from 50% ethanolic solvent proved to be more potent on breast cancer MCF-7 cell line (IC50 = 68 g/mL). On the other hand, 90% ethanolic extract showed a moderate potency on the ovarian cancer (COAV) and MCF-7 cells having an IC50 of 104.6 g/mL each. hese results suggested antiproliferative eicacy of C. citratus ethanolic extract against human cancer cell lines. 1. Introduction Cancer is among the leading causes of mortality among human population of all ages. In fact, it is responsible for 7.6 million deaths in 2008 [1]. It has been projected that the cancer mortality rate will extend to about 30.1 million by 2030 [1]. Current therapeutic interventions mostly involve malign surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, and at times the therapeutic eiciency is very low. his incurs the current increase in research on mild alternative cancer therapy. Bio- active phytochemicals exhibiting the ability to inhibit cancer cytogenesis by suppressing the tumor initiation, promotion, and progression are being considered as potential biocom- patible anticancer agents. In this regard, the antiproliferative activity of several phytochemical extracts was reported [2–4]. Among the medicinal plants used, Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass) is prominent and commonly explored in folk alternative medicine for the treatment of diverse ailments. Although, several bioactive compounds were reported to be isolated from C. citratus; among them is the acyclic mono- terpene aldehydes described as citral that comprises of isomeric geranial and neral. Citral was reported to be the major bioactive component that incurs most of the plant’s bio eicacy [5]. Popularly, the aqueous infusion of this plant is called “abafado” by Portuguese, and was said to have bio- active eicacy against nervous and gastrointestinal distur- bances when administered orally [6]. In addition, it is also reported to be a potent free radical scavenger of reactive oxygen species [7]. Furthermore, citral was shown to possess activities like anti mutagenicity [8], antiproliferative efect against Trypanosoma cruzi [9], and antinociceptive and[10], antiparasitic efects against leishmaniasis [11, 12]. he eicient potency of C. citratus on free radical scaveng- ing and antioxidation ability led us to evaluate the efect of its Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2014, Article ID 906239, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/906239