Fig. 1

Huh-7 cells (5,000 cells per well of 96-well plates) were cultured with different concentrations of MP for 24 h under serum-free conditions. a MTT assay was performed and the percent of proliferation was calculated. In parallel experiments, curcumin (50 μM) was used as a positive control (n = 3; ^# p < 0.05). b The colony formation assay was performed after plating cells in 60 mm dishes and incubating them with different concentrations of MP for 6 days. After that the cells were stained with 0.5 % crystal violet and the colonies were visually observed. The representative pictures show, untreated cells (i); cells treated with different concentrations of MP, 10 μg/ml (ii), 20 μg/ml (iii), 50 μg/ml (iv), 100 μg/ml (v), 200 μg/ml (vi), 500 μg/ml (vii), and 1000 μg/ml (viii)