Chemopreventive potential of an Indian medicinal plant (Tinospora cordifolia) on skin carcinogenesis in mice.

Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi), an Indian medicinal plant, was used to explore antitumor promoting activity in a two-stage skin carcinogenesis model. For this purpose, mice were treated by single application of DMBA (100 microg/100 microl of acetone) and two weeks later promoted by croton oil (1% in acetone three times a week) until the end of the experiment (i.e., 16 weeks). Oral administration of the above extract at the preinitiational stage (i.e., seven days before and seven days after DMBA application; group IV), promotional stage (i.e., from the time of croton oil application; group V), and both pre- and postintiational stage (i.e., from the time of DMBA application and continued until the end of the experiment; group VI; on the shaven backs of the mice at the dose of 100 mg/kg body weight/day for 16 weeks) recorded significant reduction in tumor weight, tumor incidence in comparison to control (i.e., mice treated with DMBA and croton oil; group III). Furthermore, cumulative number of papillomas, tumor yield, tumor burden, and tumor weight showed significant reduction along with significant elevation of phase II detoxifying enzymes, and inhibition of lipid peroxidation in liver and skin in the animals administered with such plant extract concomitant to carcinogen exposure. Thus, the present data strongly suggests that the Tinospora cordifolia extract has anti-tumor potential in a two-stage skin carcinogenesis mouse model.