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Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica ñ Drug Research, Vol. 72 No. 2 pp. 297ñ401, <strong>2015</strong> ISSN 0001-6837Polish Pharmaceutical SocietySHORT COMMUNICATIONCYTOTOXICITY AND ANTIGLUCOSIDASE POTENTIAL OF SIX SELECTEDEDIBLE AND MEDICINAL FERNSTSUN-THAI CHAI 1, 2, *, LOO-YEW YEOH 2 , NOR ISMALIZA MOHD. ISMAIL 1, 3 ,HEAN-CHOOI ONG 4 and FAI-CHU WONG 1, 21Center for Biodiversity Research, 2 Department of Chemical Science, 3 Department of Biological Science,Faculty of Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 31900 Kampar, Malaysia4Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaKeywords: anticancer, antidiabetic, fern, phytochemicalGlobally, bioactive phytochemicals are gainingpopularity among consumers, as evidenced by thesteady rise in the demand for botanical dietary supplements.One driving force behind this is the perceptionof herbal medicine being a safe and relativelyinexpensive alternative in the management ofhuman diseases (1, 2). There is currently intensiveeffort worldwide to search for bioactive phytochemicalsfor potential applications in the development ofnovel or alternative nutraceutical, cosmetic andpharmaceutical products (3, 4). Phytochemicalswith cytotoxic and antiglucosidase properties, forexample, can be exploited in the formulation ofchemopreventive and antidiabetic drugs (5, 6) aswell as in the development of nutraceuticals andfunctional food (7-9).Ferns are rich sources of natural products withdiverse bioactivities, including anticancer, antibacterial,antioxidant, and antiinflammatory activities(7). Nevertheless, less emphasis has been given toferns than to other plant groups in bioprospectingresearch aiming at discovering natural therapeutic orbioactive agents. Many ferns have been traditionallyused as remedies for human diseases as well asbeing consumed as vegetables. Thus, ferns arepotential candidates for the discovery of bioactiveconstituents and bioactivity which can be exploitedfor the development of nutraceutical, cosmetic andpharmaceutical products (7, 8).This study focused on six medicinal and edibleferns, namely Christella arida, Christella dentata,Cyclosorus interruptus, Microsorum punctatum,Nephrolepis acutifolia and Pleocnemia irregularis.The leaf and root of C. arida are traditionally used totreat dysentery and skin diseases (10). C. dentata isan edible fern (11), which is also a folk remedy forskin diseases (12). C. interruptus is a medicinal plantused for treating sores, burns, liver diseases, gonorrhea,cough, and malaria (13). C. interruptus-derivedcoumarin derivatives are cytotoxic to humannasopharyngeal carcinoma (KB) cell line and exhibitedantibacterial activity (14). Juice extracted fromthe fronds of M. punctatum is used as purgative,diuretic, and wound healing agents (15). N. acutifoliaand P. irregularis are both edible ferns (16, 17). P.irregularis is also used to treat diarrhea, skin diseases(18) and weak muscles (19). At present, theanticancer potential of these six ferns, except C.interruptus, has not been reported. Neither has theantiglucosidase activity of any of the six ferns beeninvestigated. Information on the polyphenol,hydroxycinnamic acid, flavonoid, and proanthocyanidincontents of the six selected ferns is scarce.Such phytoconstituent classes are known to haveimportant health-promoting and therapeutic effects(7, 9, 20). Hence, our goals were to fill in currentgaps of knowledge about the bioactivities of theseferns, in addition to identifying a promising fernspecies which can be used in the future investigationsfor the isolation of active compounds. The specificobjective of this study was two-fold: first, toassess the cytotoxicity and antiglucosidase activityof the aqueous extracts of the six selected ferns; second,to determine whether such bioactivities can be* Corresponding author: e-mail: chaitt@utar.edu.my397