Ethyl acetate crude fraction of Macaranga subpeltata and silymarin increase Vero cell survival and HepG2 cell death due to oxidative stress

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) trigger oxidative stress (OS) that determines the onset of aging and various disease progressions including cancer. Macaranga subpeltata is among medicinal plants, which shows an important source of antioxidant (AO) compounds and has the potency to overcome those problems. Silymarin is a plant-derived flavonolignan with tremendous health benefits as an AO and organ protector. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), an active prooxidant molecule, enables the generation of OS in mammalian cells. This study aims to evaluate the effect of ethyl acetate crude fraction of M. subpeltata (EACFM) and silymarin in H2O2-induced OS of Vero and HepG2 cell lines. The 3-(4,5-dimethyl azole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was used to evaluate cell viability, while examination of ROS generation and cell death were done using the flow cytometric method. The study revealed that H2O2 induced ROS generation in a dose-dependent manner both on Vero and HepG2 cell lines, and the HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cells were more resistant to H2O2 toxicity than the Vero cells. Silymarin suppressed ROS formation on both H2O2-treated cell lines with different effects; it alleviated H2O2 intoxication on Vero cells but enhanced the toxicity of H2O2 on HepG2. The EACFM reduced H2O2 intoxications of Vero cells and modulated ROS-mediated cell death of HepG2 cells through either apoptosis or necrosis. The EACFM showed a higher capacity to reduce OS due to H2O2 treatment on Vero cells; however, silymarin showed better anticancer properties. © 2023 Widodo and Rohman. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License