cytotoxicity of two species of glaucium from iran

background: numerous molecules in papaveraceae family display interesting cytotoxic activities against tumor cell lines in vitro and hints of anticancer activities in vivo have been reported in a few cases. objective: numerous molecules in this family display interesting cytotoxic activities against tumor cell lines in vitro and hints of anticancer activities in vivo have been reported in a few cases. in this study we evaluated the cytotoxic effects of total and alkaloid extracts of glaucium flavum crantz and glaucium grandiflurom boiss. & huet, the two species of this genus, on cell proliferation of ht-29, caco-2, t47d, and nih/3t3 cell lines by mtt method and their ic50s were determined. methods: the aerial parts of g. grandiflurom and g. flavum were collected from jajrud in tehran province in june 2011. the effect of total extract and alkaloid extract of them on ht-29, ta7d, nih/3t3 and caco-2 cells was determined by mtt assay. results: alkaloid extracts showed a moderate cytotoxic effect on the cell lines. ic50 values confirmed that the growth and proliferation of nih/3t3 cells were less affected in comparison to other cell lines. conclusion: the effects of alkaloid extracts of both plants on human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (ht-29, caco-2), showed that these extracts contain certain compounds that can inhibit the proliferation of colon cancerous cells.