Tehran University of Medical Sciences Acta Medica Iranica 0044-6025 54 9 2016 10 31 583 589 EN Seyed Nasser Ostad Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, Poisoning Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Afsaneh Rajabi Department of Pharmacognosy, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Rahim Khademi Agricultural Research and Natural Resources, Bushehr, Iran. Fatemeh Farjadmand Department of Traditional Pharmacy, School of Traditional Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. AND Pharmaceutical Division, Food and Drug Organization, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran. Mahdieh Eftekhari Department of Pharmacognosy, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Abbas Hadjiakhoondi Department of Pharmacognosy, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mahnaz Khanavi Department of Pharmacognosy, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. AND Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 2015 10 06 2016 09 13 The genus Centaurea with an extensive background in Iranian traditional medicine represents more than 70 species in Iran that some of them are endemic to Iran. A variety of secondary metabolites has been isolated from this genus thus far. Sesquiterpene lactones and flavonoids have been reported as main compounds of C.bruguierana. Methanolic extract and different fractions of the whole fruiting samples of Centaurea bruguierana ssp.belangerana (Asteraceae) were examined for cytotoxicity against various cell lines using MTT cytotoxicity assay in order to identify active fraction(s). The chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions of plant have demonstrated significant cytotoxicity against colon adenocarcinoma and breast ductal carcinoma cell lines, which chloroform fraction, exhibited the most potent in vitro cytotoxic activity against colon adenocarcinoma cell line, and therefore, can be considered as the potential fraction through main compounds of plant against the adenocarcinoma colon cancer cell line. Moreover, only chloroform fraction was moderately active against Swiss embryo fibroblast cell lines while the other fractions were nontoxic. To summarize, the chloroform fraction of C.bruguierana demonstrated better cytotoxic activity against all of the tested cell lines compared with the other fractions; and promisingly in some cases represented moderate to very good cytotoxicity that suggests more investigations about its phytochemical properties. https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/view/4263 https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/download/4263/4835