This research compared the cytotoxic actions of the benzofuran ketone, tremetone in B16 murine melanoma cells to SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells with an MTT assay. Tremetone was not cytotoxic in B16 cells. In SH-SY5Y cells, concentration-dependent tremetone cytotoxicity occurred without microsomal
Tremetone, the major toxic component in white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum Houtt) extracts, was isolated following an in vitro bioactivity assay. Microsomal activation was required to produce a product toxic to murine melanoma (B16F1) cells as well as five other mammalian cell cultures. The