Exploration of Antitumor Properties of Pollen Grains of Plant Species belonging to Fabaceae Family

Various bioactive compounds possessing the properties as antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antimutagenic and anticancerous have been characterized and isolated from different parts of plants. Some studies in recent years have reported the occurrence of such bioactive compounds in pollen grains as well. Considering this, the present study was planned to examine antitumor activities of ethanolic extracts of pollen grains of four plant species of family fabaceae viz., Bauhinia variegata, Cassia biflora, Cassia glauca and Cassia siamea following potato disc tumor assay. It was seen that Cassia glauca has induced minimum number (5.93 tumors per disc) of tumors, followed by Bauhinia variegata (6.13 tumors per disc), Cassia siamea (6.80 tumors per disc) and Cassia biflora (6.93 tumors per disc) during potato disc assay whereas positive control i.e. only Agrobacterium tumefaciens culture has shown 19.73 tumors. Hence, the present study clearly indicates the antitumor potential of pollen grains of the studied plants. This study is the first report to show the antitumor activities of pollen grains of Bauhinia variegata, Cassia biflora, Cassia glauca and Cassia siamea plant species.