The genus Allium,has potent antitumor activity against many types of tumors, however, its molecular target and mechanism of anti proliferative activity is not clear. The present study aims at defining the anti-microtubule activities of A. hirtifolium which belongs to genus Allium. the effects of A. hirtifolium extracts and it’s Allicin on the proliferation of HeLa (cervical cancer), MCF7 (human,caucasion,breast,adenocarcinoma) and L929 (mouse,C3H/An,connective) cell lines and also on nerve cell microtubules has been examined in this study. A. hirtifolium showed growth inhibitory activity against HeLa and MCF7 cells with IC (50) value of 20 and 24 µg/ml for 72 h. Cell growth inhibition was measured by MTT after treatment with A. hirtifolium. Microtubule protein (MTP) was prepared from sheep brain through two cycles of polymerizatinon-depolymerization in a high molarities buffer. Inhibition of MTP polymerization induced by A. hirtifolium was determined by a turbidity measurement and a sedimentation assay. A. hirtifolium was tested for its ability to bind to tubulin as a ligand through turbidimetry assay and changed the time and form of MTP polymerization then investigated by Transion Electron microscopy. A. hirtifolium clearly showed a cell growth inhibition on several human cancer cell lines at non-toxic concentration (lower than 1mg/ml).With respect to the cell lines studied,IC50 values varied from 20 in Hela to 24 µg in MCF-7 . The necessary concentration of A. hirtifolium to inhibit the assembly of microtubule proteins by 50% was 1.2mg/ml, while an inhibition higher than 80% was observed in the presence of 4mg/ml A. hirtifolium.

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