CASP3 and cancer: Figure 5 illustrates that the subfractions caused an increased expression of caspase-3 mRNA in MCF-7 and WEHI-164. However, there were no substantial changes in the expression of caspase-3 in L929 normal cells. Furthermore, the expression of Bcl-2 decreased in cancer cell lines. Evaluation of caspase and Bcl-2 expression is a common approach used for analysis of apoptosis upon treatment with compounds. For example, downregulation of Bcl-2 has been already reported in MCF-7 and WEHI cells after induction of apoptosis by other compounds [28, 29].