An indigenous drug, Tinospora cordifolia Miers. (Fam: Menispermaceae) has been defined for its use in cancer in various traditional systems of medicine. In sight of its folklore uses, \in breast and colorectal carcinoma cell lines its anticancer activity was evaluated and to estimate the berberine content an attempt was done. Ethanol extract (TCE) and subsequent petroleum ether (TCP), dichloromethane (TCD), n-Butanol (TCB) and aqueous (TCA) fractions of stems of T.cordifolia were prepared. Anti-proliferative activity was assessed breast cancer (MCF-7) and colorectal cancer (HCT-116) cell lines by MTT and SRB assay. By using HPLC berberine content in extract and fractions was estimated.The results demonstrates that the dichloromethane fraction and ethanol extract of T.cordifolia exerts strong cytotoxicity against HCT-116 with an IC50 of 54.24 μg/ml and 101.26 μg/ml; MCF-7 with an IC50 of 59.59 μg/ml and 107.2 μg/ml respectively by MTT assay; and HCT-116 with an IC50 of 48.92 μg/ml and 87.54 μg/ml; MCF-7 with an IC50 of 51.98 μg/ml and 94.23 μg/ml respectively through SRB method. The results of HPLC demonstrates that TCD contain the highest concentration of berberine (1.84 % w/w) and it was done by using berberine as a marker. Our outcomes proposed that TCE/fractions have major anti-proliferative activity which can be accredited to the presence of berberine. Besides, TCD emerged as the most effective fraction and the molecular mechanism along with the isolation of phyto-constituents responsible for its anti-cancer activity will be doing in further studies along with the screening for cytotoxicity in other available cancer cell lines.
