Antimicrobial Activity and Cytotoxicity of Alkanna Tinctoria (L.) Tausch Root Extracts

Alkanna tinctoria (L.) Tausch produced naphthoquinones known as DNA-topoisomerases inhibitors has been used as the traditional therapeutic agent, especially wound healing in Turkey. The antimicrobial activity against 9 clinical microorganisms and cytotoxicity on canine mammary carcinoma cell line (CMT-U27) of Alkanna tinctoria root extracts (methanol, ethanol and acetonitrile) were researched by using MTT analysis. Alkanet root extracts showed antimicrobial activity against 2 (Proteus spp. and S. haemolyticus) out of 9 microorganisms. In vitro study towards CMT-U27 cancer cells, acetonitrile root extract at 100 μg/mL concentration showed strong and significant anti-proliferative effect. Our results are manifested that the Alkanet acetonitrile root extract can be evaluated as potential therapeutic agent, immediately after identification of bio-active metabolits in extract