A Study of Proliferative Activity of Herbs Eriocaulon Cinereum R.Br on Cervical Cancer Cells (HeLa) with MTT Assay Method Arde T. Nugraha, Viren Ramadhan, Herianto Pandapotan, and Fitra Romadhonsyah Department of Pharmacy, Universities Islam Indonesia, Yogyakarta Email: arde.toga@uii.ac.id, {virenramadhan19, fitra.romadhon}@gmail.com, hpsiregar@ymail.com Abstract—The objective of this research was to evaluate potency of Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br to inhibit the HeLa cells. Extraction method was obtained by ultrasound- assisted extraction at 40 degrees up to 30 minutes with ethanol 96%. The extract was evaluated for total phenolic and flavonoid content and determine the proliferative on cervical cancer cell (HeLa) by MTT assay method. The result of total phenolic content is 18,983 mg/g of dry weight extract, expressed as gallic acid equivalents. The result of total flavonoid content is 63,518 mg/g, expressed as quercetin equivalents. Eriocaulon cinereum R. has potential as an anticancer with IC50 427,79 μg/ml on HeLa cells. This study has revealed the potential of Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br from Bangka Belitung Island for cervical cancer treatment. The study has shown that an in vitro exposure of HeLa cells to Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br extract, inhibit the growth HeLa cells. Index Terms—Eriocaulon Cinereum R.Br, ultrasound- assisted extraction, MTT assay, HeLa cells, cervical cancer I. INTRODUCTION Generally, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. One of three Americans people falling victim to cancer [1]. Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancer in women worldwide. Prevalence of this cancer is second highest in the development country. Cervical cancer screening is an essential part of a woman's routine health care. This routine screening can decrease the prevalence of cervical cancer in Oceanian countries, European countries, and North America. With this routine screening, we can do an early prevention, so the cells can't grow out of control [2]. In 2016, American Cancer Society estimated 4.120 women died in 12.990 cases [3]. Standard treatments for cervical cancer are surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. But, alternative treatment can also use traditional medicine. There is a traditional therapy used as an adjuvant therapy for cervical cancer. These plants like grass that grows in the swamps, from Bangka Belitung Island, Indonesia. People in Bangka Belitung are used to using plants for preventing cancer. This grass name is Eriocaulon Manuscript received November 15, 2016; revised March 28, 2017 cinereum R.Br included in Euricaulon family. Grass Gong has an anticancer activity. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a combination therapy for cancer from Eriocaulon family, using Eriocaulon sieboldianum as an adjuvant therapy [4]. Eriocaulon australe species found in China has a cytotoxic activity for A549 cell, MCF-7, and HeLa cell [5]. The compounds of Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br abundant is isoflavones and flavones with some naphtha pyranones. Overall identification with high performance liquid chromatography DAD there are fifteen flavonoid. Figure 1 describe structure of compound from Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br. including Quercetin3-O-hexosyl-(O- caffeoyl-)hexosyl hexoside (1), Quercetin3-O-hexosyl- (O-caffeoyl)hexosyl-hexoside (2), Patuletin3-O-β-d- gentiobioside (3), Quercetin3-O-deoxyhexosyl-hexoside (4), Patuletin3-O-caffeoyl-O-hexosyl-hexoside (5), Hispidulin7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (6), 5,4- Dihydroxy6,3-dimethoxyflavone7-O-β-d glucopyranoside (7), Toralactone9-O-β-d-glucosyl- (1→6)-lucoside (8), Gerontoisoflavone A (9), 7,3- Dihydroxy-5,4,5-trimethoxyisoflavone (10), Hispidulin (11), Iristectorigenin A (12), 5,7,3-Trihydroxy-6,4,5- trimethoxyisoflavone (13), (R)-Semixanthomegnin (14), (R)-Semivioxanthin (15). The high concentration compound of Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br is hispidulin, between 40-50 %. Hispidulin (11), it’s one of flavonoids group. That is the major characteristic compound from Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br with iristectorigenin A (12) and irigenin(13) [6]. Hispidulin reported having activities inhibits of ROS production and improve the functions of mitochondria [7]. ROS reported can be a trigger become cancer. Tetrazolium-based colorimetric assay (MTT test) is a method that simply counting in vitro living cells [8]. This method is carried out on searches immunological effects, cancer and biocompatibility evaluation. MTT assay is a method that can be accounted for the results, other than that this method is also relatively quick and reproducible. The objective of this research was to assess the potential of Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br as an anti-cancer agent. The potential assessment carried out by how strongly the ethanolic extract from Eriocaulon cinereum R.Br inhibit proliferation the HeLa cell. International Journal of Pharma Medicine and Biological Sciences Vol. 6, No. 2, April 2017 ©2017 Int. J. Pharm. Med. Biol. Sci. 73 doi: 10.18178/ijpmbs.6.2.73-76