Abstract
Inhibitors of tumor growth using extracts from aromatic plants are rapidly emerging as important new drug candidates for cancer therapy. The cytotoxicity and in vitro anticancer evaluation of the essential oils from thyme, juniper and clove has been assessed against five different human cancer cell lines (liver HepG2, breast MCF-7, prostate PC3, colon HCT116 and lung A549). A GC/MS analysis revealed that α-pinene, thymol and eugenol are the major components of Egyptian juniper, thyme and clove oils with concentrations of 31.19%, 79.15% and 82.71%, respectively. Strong antioxidant profiles of all the oils are revealed in vitro by DPPH and β-carotene bleaching assays. The results showed that clove oil was similarly potent to the reference drug, doxorubicin in prostate, colon and lung cell lines. Thyme oil was more effective than the doxorubicin in breast and lung cell lines while juniper oil was more effective than the doxorubicin in all the tested cancer cell lines except prostate cancer. In conclusion, the essential oils from Egyptian aromatic plants can be used as good candidates for novel therapeutic strategies for cancer as they possess significant anticancer activity.
Highlights
Throughout history, natural products have afforded a rich repository of remedies with diverse chemical structures and bioactivities against several heath disorders including cancer
In the same direction and in a continuing effort to find more potent and selective anticancer compounds, we examined the effect of Egyptian thyme, juniper and clove essential oils for their anticancer activity against five different human cancer cell lines including liver HepG2, breast MCF-7, prostate PC3, colon HCT116 and lung A549
Our results reveal that the Egyptian aromatic plants under investigation are an excellent source of essential oils with relatively high yield compared with those cultivated in other countries
Summary
Throughout history, natural products have afforded a rich repository of remedies with diverse chemical structures and bioactivities against several heath disorders including cancer. In the same direction and in a continuing effort to find more potent and selective anticancer compounds, we examined the effect of Egyptian thyme, juniper and clove essential oils for their anticancer activity against five different human cancer cell lines including liver HepG2, breast MCF-7, prostate PC3, colon HCT116 and lung A549. In our effort to search for local herbal medicines with promising activity against cancer, the present work is the first step, and aims to use local aromatic plants for the discovery of natural, cheap and safe Egyptian drugs that will be followed by continuous steps to achieve this goal. The antioxidant activity as well as cytotoxicity and in vitro anticancer evaluation of the essential oils from thyme, juniper and clove have been assessed against five different human cancer cell lines (liver HepG2, breast MCF-7, prostate PC3, colon HCT116 and lung A549)
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