American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2015, 6, 1768-1779 Published Online July 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ajps http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2015.611177 How to cite this paper: Koukoui, O., et al. (2015) Phytochemical Study and Evaluation of Cytotoxicity, Antioxidant and Hy- polipidemic Properties of Launaea taraxacifolia Leaves Extracts on Cell Lines HepG2 and PLB985. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 1768-1779. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2015.611177 Phytochemical Study and Evaluation of Cytotoxicity, Antioxidant and Hypolipidemic Properties of Launaea taraxacifolia Leaves Extracts on Cell Lines HepG2 and PLB985 Omédine Koukoui 1* , Pascal Agbangnan 2 , Sylviane Boucherie 3 , Mahudro Yovo 2 , Oliver Nusse 3 , Laurent Combettes 3 , Dominique Sohounhloué 2 1 Laboratoire de Physiologie Animale, de Signalisation Cellulaire et de Pharmacologie, FAST/Dassa, Université Polytechnique d’Abomey, Dassa Zoumè, Bénin 2 Laboratoire d’Etude et de Recherche en Chimie Appliquée, Université d’Abomey-Calavi (LERCA/UAC), Cotonou, Bénin 3 Laboratoire d’Interactions Cellulaires et de Physiopathologie Hépatique, UMR-S 1174, Université Paris Sud, Paris, France Email: * omedine@yahoo.fr Received 25 May 2015; accepted 21 July 2015; published 24 July 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Launaea taraxacifolia is a leafy vegetable of the family of Asteraceae (Compositae) found in several countries in West Africa including Ghana, Benin and Nigeria. The plant leaves are eaten either fresh as salad or cooked as sauces. They are also consumed as infusion to fight against several diseases including non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Several studies have been conducted in Ghana, Nigeria on the nutritional and medicinal values of this plant but no study has yet been conducted in Benin on the virtues of this plant. In this work we have achieved the phytochemical characterization and evaluated the cytotoxicity as well as hypolipidemic and anti- oxidant effects of the ethanol-aqueous extracts of Launaea taraxacifolia leaves. Cytotoxicity and hypolipidemic activities have been performed on HepG2 cells; the antioxidant effect has been per- formed on the PLB985 cells. The results showed that the ethanol-aqueous extracts of Launaea taraxacifolia leaves contained the following metabolites: catechic tannin, flavonoids, phenolic acids, mucilage and leucoanthocyanins. Only very high concentrations (>20 mg/ml) of leaves extracts are toxic for HepG2 cells. Launaea taraxacifolia leaves have significant antioxidant and hypolipidemic activities. * Corresponding author.