AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Major objectives The present study was formulated with the following objectives To study the free radical scavenging activity and biomolecule protective effects of the flowers of Caesalpinia pulcherrima against oxidative stress To assess the antioxidant potential of the flowers on oxidative stress induced in vitro To evaluate the differential effects of the flowers in nontransformed and transformed cells newlineTo identify the chemical nature of the active components present in the flowers Hypothesis The hypotheses set up for the present study were as follows Null hypothesis H0 The flowers of Caesalpinia pulcherrima do not possess significant antioxidant and anticancer properties newlineAlternate hypothesis HA The flowers of Caesalpinia pulcherrima contain components that exhibit strong antioxidant and anticancer effects newlineThe present study revealed that the methanolic extracts of the three flowers of Caesalpinia pulcherrima exhibit substantial free radical scavenging activity and biomolecular protection against oxidative stress both in cellfree systems and in intact cells The flower extracts can improve the antioxidant status of the tissues against oxidative stress induced in vitro The flower extracts exhibit a differential response towards noncancerous and cancerous cells wherein they protected the normal cells yeast and peripheral blood lymphocytes while increasing the susceptibility of cancer cells KB cell line to oxidant induced apoptosis Immunocytochemical analysis followed by flow cytometric analysis of cell cycle events implicated that the anticancer activity of C pulcherrima flowers is associated with apoptosis Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of major bioactive phytochemicals with proven radical scavenging potential Spectral analyses indicated that the major active constituents may belong to phenolic and flavonoid type of compounds%%%