Phytochemical concentrations and biological activities of Sorghum bicolor alcoholic extracts

Sorghum is an important cereal with reported health benefits. The objectives of this study were to measure the biological activities of alcoholic extracts of ten sorghum varieties and to determine the association between the color of the extracts and their biological activities. Variation on concentrations of bioactives among sorghum varieties was observed with ethanolic extracts giving higher concentrations than methanolic extracts. The color of the extracts significantly correlated with the concentrations of bioactives and with nitric oxide scavenging activity. Freeze-dried ethanol extract is more potent than freeze-dried methanol extract and caused cytotoxicity to A27801AP and PTX-10 OVCA with ED50 values of 0.69 and 1.29 mg mL(-1), respectively. Pre-treatment of OVCA with ethanol extract led to chemosensitization to paclitaxel and the proliferation and colony formation of OVCA cells were reduced by 14.7 to 44.6% and 36.4 to 40.1%, respectively. Sorghum is a potential source of colorants with health promoting properties. This is the first report on the capability of sorghum alcoholic extracts to cause cytotoxicity and chemosensitize ovarian cancer cells in vitro.