Among these, the extracts from the five plants and one recipe (Atractylodes lancea, Kaempferia galangal, Zingiber officinal, Piper chaba, Mesua ferrea, and Pra-Sa-Prao-Yhai recipe) showed potent cytotoxic activity with mean IC50 values of 24.09, 37.36, 34.26, 40.74, 48.23 and 44.12 μg/ml, respectively.
All possessed high activity against Hep-2 cell with mean IC50 ranging from 18.93 to 32.40 μg/ml.
In contrast, activity against the hepatoma cell HepG2 varied markedly; mean IC50 ranged from 9.67 to 115.47 μg/ml.
The only promising extract was from Zingiber officinal (IC50 = 9.67 μg/ml).
The sensitivity of all the four cells to 5-FU also varied according to cell types, particularly with CL-6 cell (IC50 = 757 micromolar).
The extract from Atractylodes lancea appears to be both the most potent and most selective against cholangiocarcinoma (IC50 = 24.09 μg/ml, SI = 8.6).