Mahdieh Qaraei - Payame Noor University
Soheila Ebrahimi - Payame Noor University
Maryam Zare - Payame Noor University
Abbas Gholipuor - Payame Noor University

Breast cancer is a severely heterogeneous disease that owing to interfacing effect of hereditary and environmental risks factors and leads to a progressive accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes in the breast cancer cells. The aim of this study is to investigate the anti-cancer effect of hydroalcoholic extract of rhizome and aerial part of the Acorus calamus L on the MCF7 cell line of breast cancer. Acorus calamus plant was picked out from its natural habitat in Mazandaran province, by shade dried and saved the form. Subsequently, the hydroalcoholic extract was obtained from dried Rhizome and leaves powder has extracted in Soxhlet apparatus. The MCF7 and 4SKIN cells, as the normal fibroblast cells, were treated with 8 different concentrations (0-2mg/mL) of Acorus calamus extract after 24, 48, and 72 hours of incubation, cell viability was investigated through MTT Assay. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS 16 software. According to our results, the hydroalcoholic extract of the rhizome and the leaves of Acorus calamus could inhibit the growth of MCF7 cancer cells in a concentration and time-dependent manner. The viability of breast cancer cells was significantly decreased according to the increase of the extract concentration and incubation time. This study shows that the hydroalcoholic extract of the rhizome and the leaf of Acorus calamus have significant inhibitory effects on breast cancer cells. However, more studies are needed to find out the effective components of the Acorus calamus extract in order to be applied as a new and effective medicine for the breast cancer prevention and treatment.

Acorus calamus, Cytotoxicity, MCF7, Hydroalcoholic