Compounds from fermented noni exudates (fNE) selectively kill human cancer cells

Our recent studies involving fermented noni exudates (fNE) made from noni (Morinda citrifolia) have shown promising anti-cancer activities. Using an in vitro cell culture system, this study examines dozens of compounds isolated from fNE in order to identify specific compounds preferentially toxic to tumor cells. The compounds at concentrations of 20, 5, or 2 μg/ml were added to NL-20 non-tumor lung cells or A549 lung carcinoma cells and incubated for 48 hours. The cytotoxicity of the compounds on the cells was measured using the MTS cell proliferation assay. Several compounds were found selectively effective in killing more A549 tumor cells than NL-20 cells. An antioxidant assay was then performed to investigate if a correlation exists between antioxidant activity and selective cancer cell killing in our samples. We found that samples BGS, C2, BGL, and C1 had the highest amount of antioxidant activity. Of these samples, only C2 showed significant selective A549 cell killing (p<.05 at 2μg/ml). Further testing is necessary to determine the mechanism of action and its possible role in immune activation.