Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women worldwide, especially in developing countries. Scrophularia umbrosa Dumort, a medicinal plant, has been used to treat various diseases in traditional medicine. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer and cytotoxic effects of S. umbrosa Dumort extracts on a human breast cancer cell line.

Methods: The methanol and other S. umbrosa Dumort factions, including those from dichloromethane, water, n-butanol, ethyl acetate, and petroleum ether, were examined. The cytotoxic effects of the fractions on MCF-7 human breast cancer adenocarcinoma and 3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblast cells were evaluated by MTT assays. In addition, apoptotic induction was determined by propidium iodide flow cytometry.

Results: The water, n-butanol. petroleum ether, and ethyl acetate fractions had no cytotoxic effects. The methanol and dichloromethane fractions showed significant cytotoxic affects in a dose-dependent manner on the malignant cells while causing no damage to non-malignant cells. In addition, the cell death assay indicated that the S. umbrosa dichloromethane fraction triggered apoptosis in the MCF-7 cells.

Conclusions: S. umbrosa induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. The S. umbrosa dichloromethane fraction exhibited the greatest cytotoxic effect on these cells. This work presents a first evaluation of the cytotoxic effects of S. umbrosa and further studies are needed to determine the cytotoxic mechanism.