Cytotoxic activity of the chloroform extract and four diterpenes isolated from Salvia ballotiflora

New compounds with chemotherapeutic activity are sought after, and plants are an important source of these compounds. Four diterpenes, 19-deoxyicetexone, 7,20-dihydroanastomosine, icetexone and 19-deoxyisoicetexone, were isolated from the hexane-washed chloroform extract of Salvia ballotiflora . The cytotoxic activity of the hexane-washed chloroform extract and its four diterpenes were tested using the MTT assay against three tumor cell lines: HeLa (cervical cancer), A549 (lung cancer) and MCF7 (breast cancer), and two murine cell line: J774A.1 (epithelial cancer) and CT26 (colon cancer), and their IC 50 values were determined. 19-Deoxyisoicetexone had the greatest effect on HeLa cells with IC 50 of 3.2 μg/ml (9.36 μM), whereas hexane-washed chloroform extract had the best cytotoxic effect on A549 cells with an IC 50 of 2.29 μg/ml. These effects of 19-deoxyisoicetexone and hexane-washed chloroform extract were with similar activity compared to cisplatin (IC 50 = 1.06 μg/ml in HeLa cells, and 4.6 μg/ml (15.21 μM) in A549 cells).