Abstract:
Breast cancer happens when cells in the breast grow and divide in an uncontrolled way.
According to WHO, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer type, accounting for 1
in 8 cancer diagnoses worldwide. Even if there are combinations of treatment for receptor
positive breast cancer depending on types and stages of the cancer, drugs are very complicated,
expensive, and often lead to undesirable side effects. This shows the need for further exploration
of drug. Traditionally, medicinal plant extracts are commonly used as a way of treatment for
breast cancer in the world. Ethiopian traditional medicine experts/healers use Gloriosa superba
L. root for the treatment of breast cancer. However, as far as the researcher knowledge is
concerned, no study showed the compound present in the root with different solvent extracts and
anticancer activity of the plant in Ethiopia. Knowing the compound present and anticancer
activity of the plant helps to lay a base and tell if the plant can be used for receptor-positive
breast cancer and future drug development. The current study was aimed to extract, characterize,
and perform molecular docking to know the compounds present and anticancer activity of the
plant on receptor-positive breast cancer. Different extracts were prepared with petroleum ether,
chloroform, acetone and ethanol solvent using soxhlet extraction techniques. UV-Vis
spectroscopy and GC-MS were used for the identification of compounds in the study. CB-Dock
online server was used to study anticancer activity of the compound from Gloriosa superba L.
root with estrogen receptor (PDB ID: 3ERT & 1ERE), progesterone receptor (PDB ID: 4OAR &
1A28) and her2 positive protein (PDB ID: 3RCD) in breast cancer. UV-Vis spectroscopy
wavelength range indicates the presence of Terpenoids, Flavonoids and their derivatives,
alkaloids, tannins, Chlorophyll and phenolic compounds. The GC-MS result from NIST
(National Institute of Standards and Technology) library revealed the presence of 107
compounds in Gloriosa superba L. root. In docking result, compounds have good binding energy
with 3ERT, 1ERE, 4OAR, 1A28 and 3RCD. The study revealed that the root of Gloriosa
superba L. has anticancer activity with receptor positive breast cancer and especially a better
activity with progesterone receptor cancer type.
