Background: Aloe vera has been found to be useful in the management of oral submucous fibrosis. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of Aloe vera on fibroblasts pretreated with arecoline. Objective: To evaluate the cytotoxic effects of Arecoline and Aloe vera on fibroblasts and to assess the effect of Aloe vera on proliferation of fibroblasts pretreated with Arecoline. Methods: Arecoline preparations (3.12 µM, 6.25 µM up to 100 µM), Aloe Vera preparations (10 µg/mL, 20 µg/mL up to 320 µg/mL) were applied to fibroblast cell lineage (L929 cells), and their cytotoxicity were measured by microculture tetrazolium technique (MTT) assay. Aloe vera solutions of various concentrations were applied to fibroblasts that were pretreated with 40 µM Arecoline and its proliferative action was measured by MTT assay. Half-maximum inhibitory concentration (IC50) and half-maximum effective concentration (EC50) values were generated. Results: Arecoline showed progressive cell inhibition at various concentrations of 9.49%–71.28%. Aloe vera showed very minimal cell inhibition ranging from 0.053% to 3.95%. Aloe vera showed progressive cell proliferation with respect to the cells pretreated with Arecoline ranging from 0.80% to 27.18%. Conclusion: Arecoline was highly toxic to fibroblast cells, whereas Aloe vera exhibited minimal cytotoxicity and significant protective action against the Arecoline cytotoxicity.
Patil et al. (2026) studied this question.