Azadirachta indica A. Juss (neem) extracts have been used in pharmaceutical applications as\nantitumor agents, due to their terpenes and phenolic compounds. To obtain extracts from neem leaves\nwith potential antiproliferative effect, a sequential process of pressurized liquid extraction was carried\nout in a fixed bed extractor at 25 C and 100 bar, using hexane (SH), ethyl acetate (SEA), and ethanol\n(SE) as solvents. Extractions using only ethanol (EE) was also conducted to compare the characteristics\nof the fractionated extracts. The results obtained by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization\nmass spectrometry suggested a higher concentration of terpenes in the SEA extract in comparison to\nSH, SE, and EE extracts. Therefore, antiproliferative activity showed that SEA extracts were the most\nefficient inhibitor to human tumor cells MCF-7, NCI-H460, HeLa, and HepG2. Hepatocellular cells\nwere more resistant to SH, SEA, SE, and EE compared to breast, lung, hepatocellular, and cervical\nmalignant cells. Neem fractioned extracts obtained in the present study seem to be more selective for\nmalignant cells compared to the non-tumor cells.
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