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Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activities of Foeniculum vulgare Mill Essential Oils

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Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background and aim

Foeniculum vulgare (F. vulgare) Mill, commonly known as fennel, belongs to the Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) family, biennial or perennial herbs disseminated in Mediterranean region and central Europe. This herbal medicine (HM) is considered as a traditional HM, and its parts have been studied.

Methods

In this survey, essential oils from seeds collected from three various regions (Kerman, Golestan, and East Azerbaijan Provinces) of Iran were prepared with hydro-distillation and their components were analyzed with gas chromatography (GC) and chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of the essential oils were examined with disk-diffusion method on Muller–Hinton agar and Subaru-dextrose Agar, respectively. Additionally, the MTT assay was assessed on breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The expression of apoptosis-related genes, Bax and Bcl2, was determined using quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR).

Results

The major fractions of essential oils identified by GC and GC/MS included trans-anethole (78.47%, 49.64%, 78.68%), fenchone (10.5%, 8.4%, and 10.2%), and limonene (5.9%, 6.70%, and 5.6%), respectively. Fennel oil collected from three various places exerted inhibitory effects on the bacterial growth and higher cytotoxic effects on MCF-7 cancer cell line. In addition, the essential oil increased the expression of Bax, but decreased Bcl2 gene expression significantly (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

According to our findings, F. vulgare essential oil can be considered as a promising agent opening venues for novel antimicrobial and anticancer therapies. Owing to side effects and expensiveness of chemotherapy approaches, HM is a new remarkable insight for future therapies.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Islamic Azad University and Tehran University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Abdolmajid Ghasemian

  2. Department of Biology, College of Science for women, University of Babylon , Hillah, Iraq

    Ali-H Al-Marzoqi

  3. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Seyyed Khalil Shokouhi Mostafavi

  4. Faculty of Education, Department of Life Sciences Hussein, Karbala University, Karbala, Iraq

    Yasemin Khudiar Alghanimi

  5. Department of Biology, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Teimouri

Authors
  1. Abdolmajid Ghasemian
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  2. Ali-H Al-Marzoqi
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  3. Seyyed Khalil Shokouhi Mostafavi
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  4. Yasemin Khudiar Alghanimi
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  5. Maryam Teimouri
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Contributions

MT conceived the ideas and collected data; AGH and SKM analyzed the data and led the writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryam Teimouri.

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This study was ethically approved by Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ghasemian, A., Al-Marzoqi, AH., Mostafavi, S.K.S. et al. Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activities of Foeniculum vulgare Mill Essential Oils. J Gastrointest Canc 51, 260–266 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-019-00241-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-019-00241-w

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