Chemical Constituents and In Vitro Anticancer, Cytotoxic, Mutagenic and Antimutagenic Activities of Artemisia Diffusa

Abstract

Water-distilled essential oil from the leaves of Artemisia diffusa Krasch. ex Poljakov, collected from north east of Iran, was investigated for phytochemical constituents and anticancer, cytotoxic, mutagenic and antimutagenic activities. Camphor (28.30%), 1,8-cineole (21.03%) and β-thujone (14.20%) were the major components in this oil. The largest part of the leaf oil of A. diffusa was formed by oxygenated monoterpenes (75.58%). Cytotoxicity was measured using a modified MTT assay against Hela and lymphocyte cells. The IC50 shows that cytotoxicity of the oil with respect to human tumor cell line (IC50 = 16.34 μg/mL) is much higher than that for healthy human cells (IC50 = 4594.92 μg/mL). These results indicate low adverse side effects of the oil. The mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of the A. diffusa oil were evaluated by the Ames Salmonella/microsome assay, using the Salmonella typhimurium tester strains TA98 and TA100, with and without the presence of metabolic activation of rat liver (S9). The excellent anti-mutagenic effect was seen in 1.16 mg/plate against both strains of S. typhimurium TA100 and TA98, without the presence of S9 fraction.