Skip to main content
Log in

Effect of citral and citral related compounds on viability of pancreatic and human B-lymphoma cell lines

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Medicinal Chemistry Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Citral, 3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienal, is a key component of the essential oils extracted from several lemon-scented herbal plants. It has been demonstrated to be an effective antifungal agent and in recent years, to have antiproliferative effect in certain tumor cell lines: thus citral could be a potential anticancer drug. In this study, we investigated the effect of citral on the proliferation of pancreatic cell tumor lines (MIA PaCa-2 cells) and human B-lymphoma (DeFew cells). To analyze which part of the molecule is pivotal for the activity, we also studied the effect of several citral related compounds, in particular focusing on some chemical aspects of the terpenic scaffold. The in vitro studies revealed the significant cytotoxic activity of some of the tested compounds.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Scheme 1
Scheme 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Burke YD, Stark MJ, Roach SL, Sen SE, Crowell PL (1997) Inhibition of pancreatic cancer growth by the dietary isoprenoids farnesol and geraniol. Lipids 32:151–156

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chaimovitsh D, Rogovoy Stelmakh O, Altshuler O, Belausov E, Abu-Abied M, Rubin B, Sadot E, Dudai N (2012) The relative effect of citral on mitotic microtubules in wheat roots and BY2 cells. Plant Biol (Stuttg) 14:354–364

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chaouki W, Leger DY, Liagre B, Beneytout JL, Hmamouchi M (2009) Citral inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 cells. Fundam Clin Pharm 23:549–556

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dangkong D1, Limpanasithikul W (2015) Effect of citral on the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin in human B-lymphoma cells. Pharm Biol 53:262–268

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Martino L, D’Arena G, Minervini MM, Deaglio S, Fusco BM, Cascavilla N, De Feo V (2009) Verbena officinalis essential oil and its component citral as apoptotic inducing agent in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol 22:615–622

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devi RC, Sim SM, Ismail R (2011) Spasmolytic effect of citral and extracts of Cymbopogon citratus on isolated rabbit ileum. J Smooth Muscle Res 47:143–156

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dieter MP, Goehl TJ, Jameson CW, Elwell MR, Hildebrandt PK, Yuan JH (1993) Comparison of the toxicity of citral in F344 rats and B6C3F1 mice when administrated by microencapsulation in feed or by corn-oil gavage. Food Chem Toxicol 31:463–474

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dudai N, Weinstein Y, Krup M, Rabinski T, Ofir R (2005) Citral is a new inducer of caspase-3 in tumor cell lines. Planta Med 71:484–488

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elgendy EM, Khayyat SA (2008) Oxidation studies on some natural monoterpenes: citral, pulegone and camphene. Russian Zhurnal Organicheskoi Khimii 44:825–830

    Google Scholar 

  • Escande V, Petit E, Garoux L, Boulanger C, Grison C (2015) ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng 3:2704–2715

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ganjewala D (2009) Cymbopogon Essential oils: compositions and bioactivities. Int J Essent Oil Therapt 3:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh K (2013) Anticancer effect of lemongrass oil and citral on cervical cancer cell lines. Pharmacogn Comm 3:41–48

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Katsukawa M, Nakata R, Takizawa Y, Hori K, Takahashi S, Inoue H (2011) Citral, a component of lemongrass oil, activates PPAR and suppresses COX-2 expression. Biochem Biophy Acta 1801:1214–1220

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S, Dwivedi S, Kukreja AK, Sharma JR, Bagchi GD (2000) Cymbopogon: The Aromatic Grass. Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, India

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuwahara Y, Suzuki H, Matsumoto K, Wada Y (1983) Pheromone study on acarid mites. XI. Function of mite body as geometrical isomerization and reduction of citral (the alarm pheromone) Carpoglyphus lactis. Appl Entomol Zool 18:30–39

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hailong X, Wei L, Song Q, Xiaowen C, Chen X, Hong J (2013) The in vitro study of apoptosis in NB4 cell induced by citral. Cytotechnology 65:49–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leal WS, Kuwahara Y, Suzuki T, Nakano Y, NAKAO H (1898) Identification and synthesis of 2,3-Epoxyneral, a novel monoterpene from the Acarid Mite Tyrophagus. Agric Biol Chem 53:295–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee KH (1999) Anticancer drug design based on plant-derived natural products. J Biomed Sci 6:236–250

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lewinsohn E, Dudai N, Tadmor Y, Katzir I, Ravid U, Putievsky E, Joel DM (1998) Histochemical localization of citral accumulation in lemongrass leaves (Cymbopogon citrates, Poaceae). Ann Bot (Lond) 81:35–39

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mikami K, Daikuhara H, Kasama J, Yokoyama A, Yokozawa T (2011) Synthesis of poly(naphthalenecarboxamide)s with low polydispersity by chain-growth condensation polymerization. J of Poly Sci Part A: Poly Chem 49:3020–3028

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mosmann T (1983) Rapid colorimetric assay for cellular growth and survival: application to proliferation and cytotoxicity assays. J Immunol Methods 16:55–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura Y, Miyamoto M, Murakami A, Ohigashi H, Osawa T, Uchida K (2003) A phase II detoxification enzyme inducer from lemongrass: identification of citral and involvement of electrophilic reaction in the enzyme induction. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 302:593–600

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Onawunmi GO (1989) Evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of citral. Lett Appl Microbial 9:105–8

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rabbani SI, Devi K, Zahra N (2005) Anti-clastogenic effects of citral. Iran J Pharmacol Ther. 4:28–31

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rabbani SI, Devi K, Khanam S, Zahra N (2006) Citral, a component of lemongrass oil inhibits the clastogenic effect of nickel chloride in mouse micronucleus test system. Pak J Pharm Sci 19:108–13

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vinitketkumnuen U, Puatanchokchai R, Kongtawelert P (1994) Antimutagenicity of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) to various known mutagens in salmonella mutation assay. Mutat Res 341:71–75

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rose SD, Lefler SC, Ottersberg SR, Kim AY, Glendale K, OkolotoWicZ J, Hartman (2006) Anticancer agents based on regulation of protein prenylation. US Patent 7,019,031

  • Surendra K, Corey EJ (2008) Rapid and enantioselective synthetic approaches to germanicol and other pentacyclic triterpenes. J Am Chem Soc 130:8865–8876

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yarovaya OI, Salomatina OV, Korchagina DV, Polovinka MP, Barhash VA (2002) Trasformation of 6,7 epoxy derivatives of citral and citronellal in various acidic media. Russian J of Organic Chem 38:1594–1612

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zeng S, Kapur A, Patankar MS, Xiong MP (2015) Formulation, characterization, and antitumor properties of trans- and Cis-Citral in the 4T1 breast cancer xenograft mouse model. Pharm Res 8:2548–2558

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhuang SR, Chen SL, Tsai JH, Huang CC, Wu TC, Liu WS, Tseng HC, Lee HS, Huang MC, Shane GT, Yang CH, Shen YC, Yan YY, Wang CK (2009) Effect of citronellol and the Chinese medical herb complex on cellular immunity of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy/radiotherapy. Phytother Res 23:785–790

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to university of Salerno for financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Antonia Di Mola or Paolo De Caprariis.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Di Mola, A., Massa, A., De Feo, V. et al. Effect of citral and citral related compounds on viability of pancreatic and human B-lymphoma cell lines. Med Chem Res 26, 631–639 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-017-1779-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-017-1779-z

Keywords

Navigation