Anticancer Activity of Glycyrrhiza cultivar Extracts in Breast Cancer Cells

Several studies report the anticancer effect of Glycyrrhiza glabra (G. glabra), Glycyrrhiza uralensis (G. uralensis) and their compounds. However, the anticancer effect of Glycyrrhiza cultivar roots are limited. In this study, we compared the anticancer effect of Glycyrrhiza cultivar (Wongam and Shinwongam) extracts with G. glabra and G. uralensis extracts in breast cancer cell lines. Freeze dried Glycyrrhiza root extracts were dissolved in cell culture media at 2 mg/mL and filtered by $0.2{\mu}m$ filter. Glycyrrhiza root extracts were serially diluted at the concentrations of $10{\mu}g/mL$, $100{\mu}g/mL$, $200{\mu}g/mL$, $400{\mu}g/mL$, $800{\mu}g/mL$, $1000{\mu}g/mL$ and $2000{\mu}g/mL$. MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were treated with different concentrations of Glycyrrhiza root extracts and the cell viability was measured using MTT assay. In MCF-7 cells, G. glabra showed no significant difference with Wongam and showed significant difference with Shinwongam at $1000{\mu}g/mL$ (G. glabra 101.2% and Shinwongam 82.68%) and $2000{\mu}g/mL$ (G. glabra 83.07% and Shinwongam 54.05%). G. uralensis showed significant difference with Wongam at $2000{\mu}g/mL$ (G. uralensis 66.48% and Wongam 95.02%) and showed no significant difference with Shinwongam. In MDA-MB-231 cells, G. glabra showed no significant difference with both Wongam and Shinwongam. G. uralensis showed significant difference with Wongam at $2000{\mu}g/mL$ (G. uralensis 72.59% and Wongam 93.47%) and showed no significant difference with Shinwongam. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that G, glabra and G. uralensis compared with Wongam, and Shinwongam at low concentrations ($10{\mu}g/mL{\sim}800{\mu}g/mL$) display similar cytotoxic potency.