Magozwi, Douglas KemboiPeter, XolaniLangat, Moses K.Mhlanga, RichwellVukea, NyeletiDela Mare, Jo-AnneSiwe-Noundou, XavierKrause, Rui W.M.Tembu, Vuyelwa Jacqueline2024-10-082024-10-082021-09-272468-2276https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2021.e01002https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14519/773Euphorbia grandicornis Blanc is widely utilized in traditional medicine for a variety of ailments including body pains associated with skin irritations, inflammation, and snake or scorpion bites. Compounds from E. grandicornis were characterized using spectro- scopic techniques, NMR, IR, MS, and melting points and alongside the extracts were evaluated for in vitro anticancer activity against several cancer cell lines. The root ex- tract afforded known, β-glutinol ( 1 ), β-amyrin ( 2 ), 24-methylenetirucalla-8-en-3 β-ol ( 3 ), tirucalla-8,25-diene-3 β,24 R -diol ( 4 ), stigmasterol ( 5 ), sitosterol ( 6 ), and hexyl ( E )-3-(4–hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-propenoate ( 7 ) based on their NMR spectroscopic data for the first report in E. grandicornis . The extracts and isolated compounds were evaluated for anticancer activities against hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (MCF-7), triple- negative breast cancer (HCC70), and non-tumorigenic mammary epithelial (MCF-12A) cell lines. The CH 2 Cl 2 extract exhibited potent, cytotoxicity against MCF-7, HCC70, and MCF- 12A cells. The aerial extract exhibited IC 50 values of 1.03, 0.301, and 1.68 μg/mL, and root extract displayed IC 50 values of 0.83, 0.83 and 3.98 μg/mL against MCF-7, HCC70, and MCF-12A cells, respectively. The root extract thus showed selectivity for the cancer cell lines over the non-cancerous control cell line (SI = 4.80). Hexyl ( E )-3-(4–hydroxy- 3-methoxyphenyl)-2-propenoate ( 7 ) showed significant activity with IC 50 values of 23.41, 29.45 and 27.01 μM against MCF-7, HCC70 and MCF-12A cells, respectively, suggesting non- specific cytotoxicity.1-8 PagesenAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/Euphorbia grandicornisChemical constituentsCytotoxic activitiesMCF-7HCC70MCF-12AArticle