Fig. 8

Detection of caspase-3 activity in IEC6 cells. Cells were treated with 500 μg/mL of leaf extracts from R. cinnabarinum (a) and R. ferrugineum (b) for the indicated time intervals. Reactions were carried out at room temperature and fluorescence was measured in a fluorescence microplate reader using 496 nm for excitation and emission was detected at 520 nm. Non-treated cells and cells treated with DMSO (0.5 %) were used as negative controls, while staurosporine (10 μg/mL) treatment was used as a positive control (apoptosis inducer). Values are given as mean ± standard deviations from three independent experiments, each performed in triplicates. Statistical evaluation was performed by one way ANOVA-analysis; levels of significance are indicated as *for p < 0.05