Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women and is the number two killer (after lung cancer) of women. Zingiber afficinael is used as traditional medicine. Recently, the biological activities of Zingiberaceae plants have been reported as possessing antitumor, antibacterial, anti ulcer, antifungal, and insecticidal properties. However the antitumor effects haven't been studied in breast cancer cell lines. So we decided to evaluate it.
Methods: MCF-7 and normal cells were cultured in DMEM medium. The fresh Zingiber officinal was extracted and different dilutions of Zingier extract (1/60 to 1/200) was used. Cell viability was quantitated by MTT assay after 24, 48 and 72 hours.
Results: after 24 hours, at 1/60 & 1/70 extract dilutions, all of the cells and at 1/80, %50 of cells died in comparison with normal cells (p<0.001). therefore 1/80 dilution was considered as IC50.
Conclusion: It was showed that a cytotoxic effect of the extracts of Zingiber officinale is more significant in breast cancer cells than cytotoxic effects of it observed in normal cells. Therefore probably it can be used as chemopreventive agent in clinical trials.