Abstract
Despite significant developments occurring in the treatment of cancer, it still remains the second deadly
disease, responsible for 8.2 million deaths every year. Various natural substances have been studied for active molecules
of tumor suppression in the past and the tropical flora, by its diversity, continues to provide new antitumor drugs.
Crateva adansonii dichloromethane-methanol (DCM/MeOH) extract was previously reported to prevent breast
tumors in Wistar rats. However, it exhibited weak cytotoxic effect in human MCF-7 cells. The present study, therefore,
deals with the investigation of its estrogenic and antiestrogenic effects. In vitro estrogenicity and antiestrogenicity
of C. adansonii DCM/MeOH extract were performed by E-screen assay. In vivo, the investigation was carried out using
the 3 days uterotrophic assay in ovariectomized rats, a classical tool for the prediction of estrogenicity of chemicals.
As a result, C. adansonii extract did not induce MCF-7 cells proliferation, which is an estrogenic hallmark. However,
C. adansonii extract induced a significant (P <0.05) decrease in a concentration-dependent manner of the
MCF-7 proliferation when co-administered with E2B. In vivo, no estrogen-like effect was observed following a
3-day treatment with C. adansonii extract in estrogen target organs. However, the co-administration of C. adansonii
extract with E2V lead to decreased uterine wet weight (P <0.05), total protein levels in uteri (P <0.01) as well as uterine and
vaginal epithelial heights (P <0.05) as compared to animals treated with E2V only. These results suggest that C. adansonii
has antiestrogenic effects but not estrogenic effects, which might account for its previously observed antimammary tumour
effects in rats.