Rutamarin, an active constituent from Ruta angustifolia Pers., induced apoptotic cell death in the HT29 colon adenocarcinoma cell line

Background: Ruta angustifolia Pers. is a perennial herb that is cultivated worldwide, including Southeast Asia, for the treatment of various diseases as traditional medicine. Objective: The purpose of the study was to identify an active principle of R. angustifolia and to investigate its effect on the HT29 cell death. Materials and Methods: The methanol and fractionated extracts (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and water) of R. angustifolia Pers. were initially investigated for their cytotoxic activity against two human carcinoma cell lines (MCF7 and HT29) and a normal human colon fibroblast cell line (CCD-18Co) using sulforhodamine B cytotoxicity assay. Eight compounds including rutamarin were isolated from the active chloroform extract and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against HT29 human colon carcinoma cell line and CCD-18Co noncancer cells. Further studies on the induction of apoptosis such as morphological examinations, biochemical analyses, cell cycle analysis, and caspase activation assay were conducted in rutamarin-treated HT29 cells. Results: Rutamarin exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activity against HT29 cells (IC₅₀value of 5.6 μM) but was not toxic to CCD-18Co cells. The morphological and biochemical hallmarks of apoptosis including activation of caspases 3, 8, and 9 were observed in rutamarin-treated HT29 cells. These may be associated with cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 and G2/M checkpoints, which was also observed in HT29 cells. Conclusions: The present study describes rutamarin-induced apoptosis in the HT29 cell line for the first time and suggests that rutamarin has the potential to be developed as an anticancer agent.