| Summary: | Objectives: The main objective of the present research is to provide GC–MS and LC-MS phytochemcial profiling of Corchorus olitorius along with Flow cytometry based mechanistic investigation of cytotoxic activity of its extracts against breast and lung cancer cell lines. Methods: The Soxhlet extraction method was used in the sequential extraction of C. olitorius. The phytochemical profiling was done using LC-MS and GC–MS techniques, and total phenolic and flavonoid content was determined. The cytotoxicity was studied against non-cancerous L929 cells and cancerous MCF-7 and A549 cell lines using MTT assay, followed by flow cytometry based molecular mechanisms study through anti-Bcl-2 assay, Caspase-3, and DNA fragmentation (TUNEL assay). Results: The C. olitorius methanolic extract showed the phenolic compounds and flavonoids as a major constituents with 699 µg GAE/g of dw and 1361.50 µg QE/g of dw, respectively. The GC–MS and LC-MS results confirmed the presence of active phytochemicals. Toxicity study against L929 cell line revealed that methanol extract proved to be less toxic with a higher IC50 value i.e. 227.84 µg/ml. Cell viability MTT assay for methanol extract against MCF-7 and A549 cell lines revealed significant results with IC50 values of 20 µg/ml and 12.45 µg/ml, respectively. The flow cytometry based molecular marker studies showed that the extract successively induced early and late apoptosis in tested breast and lung cancer cells through activation of Caspase-3 with inhibition of Bcl-2 protein and induced cell death through DNA damage. Conclusion: Collectively, these findings show that the methanol extract of C. olitorius inhibits breast cancer and lung cancer cell lines with significant cytotoxic activity. Thus, C. olitorius would be a promising source of chemopreventive agents that warrant further investigation to find lead compounds with cancer chemotherapeutic potential.
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