Abstract
Essential oils, which may be extracted from several parts of plants, have different biological activities. The Brazilian Cerrado has a large variety of plants that yield essential oils, even though many have not been studied yet. Taking into account the biodiversity of this biome, this study aimed at evaluating the antiproliferative activity of essential oils extracted from three species of plants of the Cerrado in Goiás state: Campomanesia adamantium (Cambess.) O. Berg, Protium ovatum (Engl. in Mart.) and Cardiopetalum calophyllum (Schltdl.). Essential oils were extracted from both C. adamantium and C. calophyllum leaves and from P. ovatum leaves and green fruits by hydrodistillation carried out by a Clevenger-type apparatus. The chemical composition of the essential oils was determined by Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The following major chemical constituents were identified in the essential oils under investigation: β-myrcene (62.00%), spathulenol (28.78%), germacrene-B (18.27%), β-caryophyllene oxide (16.40%), β-caryophyllene (14.00%), α-pinene (11.30%), viridiflorol (9.99%), limonene (7.30%) and (Z,E)-pharnesol (6.51%). The antiproliferative activity was evaluated in different human tumor cell lines: breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), cervical adenocarcinoma (HeLa) and glioblastoma (M059J). A normal human cell line was included (GM07492A, lung fibroblasts). Results showed that essential oils from C. adamantium leaves got the lowest values of IC50 in all strains of tumor cells under evaluation. They were significantly lower than the ones of the normal cell line, an evidence of selectivity. It is worth mentioning that this is the first report of the antiproliferative activity of essential oils from C. adamantium , P. ovatum and C. calophyllum against human tumor cells.
Highlights
The Brazilian Cerrado biome, which is a great source of medicinal plants, comprises several pharmacologically active species that have been used in folk medicine and contribute to significant knowledge of bioactive compounds and for the development of herbal remedy (Ribeiro et al, 2016)
Previous studies carried out by the members of this research group reported the content and the chemical composition of essential oils extracted from C. adamantium and C. calophyllum leaves and from P. ovatum leaves and green fruits
Mean contents of essential oils found after hydrodistillation of C. adamantium and C. calophyllum leaves and of P. ovatum leaves and green fruits were 0.32%, 0.06%, 0.30% and 0.50%, respectively (Oliveira et al, 2017; Xavier et al, 2016b; Estevam et al, 2017; Estevam et al, 2018)
Summary
The Brazilian Cerrado (savanna) biome, which is a great source of medicinal plants, comprises several pharmacologically active species that have been used in folk medicine and contribute to significant knowledge of bioactive compounds and for the development of herbal remedy (Ribeiro et al, 2016). Essential oils yielded by these medicinal plants have been defined as complex mixtures of volatile, lipophilic, usually odoriferous, liquid and oily – at room temperature – substances which have broad biological application (Santos et al, 2013). Most cancer treatments have been considered one of the most challenging problems in medicine nowadays. The search for new drugs that display activity against several types of cancer has become one of the most interesting subjects in the field of natural products. Several experimental and epidemiological studies have shown that some plants may promote chemopreventive and/or antineoplastic activity (Oliveira et al, 2014). It is known that 50% of therapeutic agents used in cancer treatments have natural origin, mainly essential oils, which have drawn researchers’ interest worldwide due to the fact that some have important antiproliferative activity (Al‐Hajj et al, 2017)
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