Fig 2. Inhibitory effects of water and methanol extracts of N. nucifera leaves on tube formation in HUVECs.

(a) HUVECs (5 x 10⁴ cells) were plated on wells that had been previously coated with 40 μL of growth factor-reduced Matrigel basement membrane matrix. Cells were then treated with extracts in the presence of VEGF (20 ng ml⁻¹). After 14 h, cells were photographed with a digital camera under a phase contrast microscope at 40x magnification. (b)The bar graph represents the relative area covered by the tube network, and data are shown as the mean ± SD. *: p<0.05 compared with untreated control; ^#: p<0.05 compared with VEGF-treated group.