Anti cancer activity of n-butanol extract of marine sediment fungi Aspergillus protuberus sp1 against dalton’s ascitic lymphoma in mice

Marine derived fungi provide plenty of structurally unique and biologically active secondary metabolites. In our previous study, we screened the marine sediments collected from the different coastal locations of Kanyakumari district, south India. In this study, we identified a new fungal species Aspergillus protuberus SP1 (Gen Bank Accession: HQ 386016). The n-butanol exogenous extract of A.protuberus SP1 showed in vitro antibacterial and anticancer activity. This extract was subjected to column chromatographic separation using different solvent compositions in the ratio of 9:1 to 1:9 in each composition. The ethanol: methanol (9:1) composition was selected for GC-MS study, indicated the presence of nine compounds. The nbutanol extract was subjected to toxicity evaluation. The results showed that the ED50 of the extract is 200mg/kg body weight and this extract was safe and it did not induce any sub acute or chronic toxicities in the experimental animals. The present study was designed to evaluate the anticancer activity of n-butanol extract in cancer induced male Swiss albino mice. Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) cells were used for the cancer induction in animals. Two doses of n-butanol extract 200 mg and 400 mg/kg body weight was utilized for the evaluation. The fluorouracil injection dose of 20 mg/kg body weight was used for the comparative evaluation. Body weight, life span, cell count, hematological and biochemical parameters of treated animals were analyzed and compared. The results strongly support the antitumor and hepatoprotective nature of n-butanol exogenous extract of A.protuberus SP1.