Effects of Homeopathic Dilutions of Echinacea angustifolia and Thuja occidentalis on Cervical Cancer Cells

Background: Uterine cervix cancer is a great health problem. Human papilloma virus is the main cause for its development. Thuja occidentalis is a homeopathic treatment for warts caused by papilloma virus, and we have used Echinacea angustifolia in other tumor lines with success.

Aim: We decided to study the cytotoxic effects of these homeopathic medicines on different cervical tumor lines.

Method: We assessed the cytotoxic activity of E. angustifolia and T. occidentalis with mother tincture (MT) and homeopathic dilutions (6C, 30C, 200C, and 1M) on the following human cervical cancer cell lines: CaSki HPV 16+ 18+, C-33A HPV 16−18−, SiHa HPV 16+ 18− and HeLa 16−18+. Tumor cytotoxicity was measured using the 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method.

Conclusion: The most cytotoxicity effects observed were: With E. angustifolia, in HeLa 16–18+, the viability percentages were MT (6.51 ± 0.9), 6C (31.21 ± 1.9), 30C (33.22 ± 3.3), 200C (34.47 ± 5.9), 1M (49.24 ± 10.7), and vehicle (92.98 ± 8.9). Also, with T. occidentalis, HeLa 16–18+ was the most susceptible; viability percentages were MT (3.75 ± 0.6), 6C (36.77 ± 5.5), 30C (37.40 ± 8.5), 200C (40.54 ± 15.4), 1M (37.89 ± 4.5), and vehicle (92.98 ± 8.9). This study provides evidence that HeLa 16−18+ is the most susceptible tumor cell line to homeopathic treatment and E. angustifolia showed major activity than T. occidentalis against these tumor cell lines, signifying their possible use in cancer therapy.

Keywords: Cervical uterine cancer, Echinacea angustifolia, Thuja occidentalis