Studies of anticancer and antipyretic activity of Bidens pilosa whole plant

Screening of different extracts and fractions from the plant Bidens pilosa Linn. var. (Asteraceae) has been conducted using the in – vitro comet assay for anticancer and the antipyretic action, which was done with in – vivo models. The extract from whole plant was extracted with n – hexane, chloroform and methanol extract (E1 – E3). The extracts were fractioned by column chromatography method and fractioned with ethyl acetate, acetone and water (F1 – F3). All the extracts and fractions were tested for anticancer and antipyretic activity. Among extracts E1 shows remarkable anticancer activity and E3 bears maximum antipyretic activity. In the antipyretic activity, paracetamol was used as the standard test drug. The most promising material (LC50 < 1500 μg / ml) was F1 ethyl acetate fractions of methanolic extract and methanolic crude extract of whole plants. However, little correlation was observed in the degree of antipyretic activity between the test drug and standard drug. In conclusion, the extract obtained from the whole plant of Bidens pilosa showed a significant cytotoxic effect to methanolic extract against Hela cells by in vitro method and showed a comparable antipyretic activity effect to paracetamol in rabbit pyrogen test. African Health Sciences Vol. 6(1) 2006: 27-30