Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Menu
Find a journal Publish with us
Search
Cart
  1. Home
  2. Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
  3. Article

Cytotoxicity screening of essential oils in cancer cell lines

  • Short communication
  • Open access
  • Published: 01 April 2015
  • volume 25, pages 183–188 (2015)
Download PDF

You have full access to this open access article

Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia Aims and scope Submit manuscript
Cytotoxicity screening of essential oils in cancer cell lines
Download PDF
  • Pollyanna Francielli de Oliveira1,
  • Jacqueline Morais Alves1,
  • Jaqueline Lopes Damasceno1,
  • Renata Aparecida Machado Oliveira1,
  • Herbert Júnior Dias2,
  • Antônio Eduardo Miller Crotti2 &
  • …
  • Denise Crispim Tavares1 

  • 266 Accesses

  • 99 Citations

  • 1 Altmetric

  • Explore all metrics

Cite this article

Abstract

This study evaluated the cytotoxicity activity of the essential oils of Tagetes erecta L., Asteraceae (TEOE), Tetradenia riparia (Hochst.) Codd, Lamiaceae (TR-OE), Bidens sulphurea (Cav.) Sch. Bip., Asteraceae (BS-OE), and Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Apiaceae (FV-OE), traditionally used in folk medicine, against the tumor cell lines murine melanoma (B16F10), human colon carcinoma (HT29), human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), human cervical adenocarcinoma (HeLa), human hepatocellular liver carcinoma (HepG2), and human glioblastoma (MO59J, U343, and U251). Normal hamster lung fibroblasts (V79 cells) were included as control. The cells were treated with essential oil concentrations ranging from 3.12 to 400 μg/ml for 24 h. The cytotoxic activity was evaluated using the XTT assay; results were expressed as IC50, and the selectivity index was calculated. The results were compared with those achieved for classic chemotherapeutic agents. TE-OE was the most promising among the evaluated oils: it afforded the lowest IC50 values for B16F10 cells (7.47 ± 1.08 μg/ml) and HT29 cells (6.93 ± 0.77 μg/ml), as well as selectivity indices of 2.61 and 2.81, respectively. The major BS-EO, FV-EO and TE-EO chemical constituents were identified by gas chromatography mass spectrometry as being (E)-caryophyllene (10.5%), germacrene D (35.0%) and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (43.0%) (BS-EO); limonene (21.3%) and (E)-anethole (70.2%) (FV-EO); limonene (10.4%), dihydrotagetone (11.8%), α-terpinolene (18.1%) and (E)-ocimenone (13.0%) (TE-EO); and fenchone (6.1%), dronabinol (11.0%), aromadendrene oxide (14.7%) and (E,E)–farnesol (15.0%) (TR-EO). 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (43.0%), (E)-anethole (70.2%) and α-terpinolene (18.1%), respectively. These results suggest that TE-OE may be used to treat cancer without affecting normal cells.

Article PDF

Download to read the full article text

Use our pre-submission checklist

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

References

  • Adams, R., 2005. Identification of Essential Oils Components by Gas Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry, 4th ed. Allured Publishing, Carol Stream, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agarwal, R., Gupta, S.K., Agarwal, S.S., Srivastava, S., Saxena, R., 2008. Oculohypotensive effects of Foeniculum vulgare in experimental models of glaucoma. Indian J. Physiol. Pharmacol. 52, 77–83.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aguiar, G.P., Melo, N.I., Wakabayashi, K.A.L., Lopes, M.H.S., Mantovani, A.L.L., Dias, H.J., Fukui, M.J., Keles, L.C., Rodrigues, V., Groppo, M., Silva-Filho, A.A., Cunha, W.R., Magalhães, L.G., Crotti, A.E.M., 2013. Chemical composition and in vitro schistosomicidal activity of the essential oil from the flowers of Bidens sulphurea (Asteraceae). Nat. Prod. Res. 27, 920–924.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Akgul, A., Bayrak, A., 1988. Comparative volatile oil composition of various parts from Turkish bitter fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare). Food Chem. 30, 319–323.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anwar, F., Ali, M., Hussain, A.I., Shahid, M., 2009. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oil and extracts of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) seeds from Pakistan. Flavour Frag. J. 24, 170–176.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baslas, R.K., Singh, A.K., 1981. Chemical examination of essential oil from the leaves of Tagetes erecta Linn. J. Indian Chem. Soc. 58, 104.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bézivin, C., Tomasi, F., Lohézie-Le, D., Boustie, J., 2003. Cytotoxic activity of some lichen extracts on murine and human cancer cell lines. Phytomedicine 10, 499–503.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bisset, N.G., 1994. Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals–A Handbook for Practice on a Scientific Bases. London/Stuttgart, Medpharm/CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botsaris, A.S., 2007. Plants used tradicionally to treat malaria in Brazil: the archives of flora medicinal. J. Ethnobiol. Ethnomed. 3, 2–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, W.E., Gammon, D.W., Smith, P., Abrahams, M., Purves, T., 1997. Composition and antimalarial activity in vitro of the essential oil of Tetradenia riparia. Planta Med. 63, 270–272.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chung, I.-M., Ro, H.-M., Moon, H.-I., 2011. Major essential oils composition and immunotoxicity activity from leaves of Foeniculum vulgare against Aedes aegypti L. Immunopharmacol. Immunotoxicol. 33, 450–453.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cosge, B., Gurbuz, B., Kendir, H., Ipek, A., 2008. Composition of essential oil in sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare mill. var. dulce) lines originated from Turkey. Asian J. Chem. 20, 1137–1142.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • De Mesquita, M.L., de Paula, J.E., Pessoa, C., De Moraes, M.O., Costa-Lotufo, L.V., Grougnet, R., Michel, S., Tillequin, F., Espindola, L.S., 2007. Cytotoxic activity of Brazilian Cerrado plants used in traditional medicine against cancer cell lines. J. Ethnopharmacol. 123, 439–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunkel, F., Weaver, D., Van Puyvelde, L., Cusker, J.L., Serugend, A., 1990. Population suppression effects of Rwandan medicinal plant, Tetradenia riparia (Hochst.) Codd (Lamiaceae) on stored grain and bean insects. In: Proc. 5th Int. Wkg. Conf. Stored Prod. Prot, pp. 1609–1617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabio, A., Carmelli, C., Fabio, G., Nicoletti, P.I., Quaglio, P., 2007. Screening of the antibacterial effects of a variety of essential oils on microorganisms responsible for respiratory infections. Phytother. Res. 21, 374–377.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, C.M.M., Barba, E.L., Fernandez, A.C.M., Cardoso, B.K., Borges, I.B., Takemura, O.S., Martins, L.D., Cortez, L.E.R., Cortez, D.A.G., Gazim, Z.C., 2014. Larvicidal activity of essential oil from Tetradenia riparia to control of Aedes aegypti larvae in function of season variation. J. Essent. Oil Bear. Pl. 17, 813–823.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • García-Jiménez, N., Perez-Alonso, M.J., Velasco-Negueruela, A., 2000. Chemical composition of fennel oil, Foeniculum vulgare Miller, from Spain. J. Essent. Oil Res. 12, 159–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gazim, Z.C., Amorim, A.C.L., Hovell, A.M.C., Rezende, C.M., Nascimento, I.A., Ferreira, G.A., Cortez, D.A.G., 2010. Seasonal variation, chemical composition, and analgesic and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil from leaves of Tetradenia riparia (Hochst.) Codd in Southern Brazil. Molecules 15, 5509–5524.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gazim, Z.C., Rodrigues, F.F.G., Amorin, A.C.L., de Rezende, C.M., Sokovic, M., Tesevic, V., Vuckovic, I., Krstic, G., Cortez, L.E.R., Colauto, N.B., Linde, G.A., Cortez, D.A.G., 2014. New natural diterpene-type abietane from Tetradenia riparia essential oil with cytotoxic and antioxidant activities. Molecules 19, 514–524.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, M., Friedman, J., Dudai, N., Larkov, O., Cohen, Y., Bar, E., Ravid, U., Putievsky, E., Lewinsohn, E., 2002. Biosynthesis of estragole and trans-anethole in bitter fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill. var. vulgare) chemotypes. Changes in SAM:phenylpropene O-methyltransferase activities during development. Plant Sci. 162, 1047–1053.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He, W.P., Huang, B.K., 2011. A review of chemistry and bioactivities of a medicinal spice: Foeniculum vulgare. J. Med. Plants Res. 5, 3595–3600.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Krishna, A., Kumar, S., Mallavarapu, G.R., Ramesh, S., 2004. Composition of the essential oils of the leaves and flowers of Tagetes erecta L. J. Essent. Oil Res. 16, 520–522.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nakagawa, Y., Suzuki, T., 2003. Cytotoxic and xenoestrogenic effects via biotransformation of trans-anethole on isolated rat hepatocytes and cultured MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Biochem. Pharmacol. 66, 63–73.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neher, R.T., 1968. The ethnobotany of Tagetes. Econ. Bot. 22, 317–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogunwande, I.A., Olawore, N.O., 2006. The essential oil from the leaves and flowers of African Marigold, Tagetes erecta L. J. Essent. Oil Res. 18, 366–368.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Omolo, M.O., Okinyo, D., Ndiege, I.O., Lwande, W., Hassanali, A., 2004. Repellency of essential oils of some Kenyan plants against Anopheles gambiae. Phytochemistry 65, 2797–2802.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozcan, M.M., Chalchat, J.C., 2006. Effect of collection time on chemical composition of the essential oil of Foeniculum vulgare subsp piperitum growing wild in Turkey. Eur. Food Res. Technol. 224, 279–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peter, W., Deogracious, O., 2006. The in vitro ascaricidal activity of selected indigenous medicinal plants used in ethnoveterinary practices in Uganda. Afr. J. Tradit. Complem. 3, 94–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabi, T., Bishayee, A., 2009. d-Limonene sensitizes docetaxel-induced cytotoxicity in human prostate cancer cells: Generation of reactive oxygen species and induction of apoptosis. J. Carcinog. 8, 9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ram, B., Mandlik, M., Kumar, K., 2013. Antimicrobial activity of Cosmos sulphureus flowers around Pune. Int. J. Pharm. Res. Dev. 5, 27–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sefidkon, F., Salehyar, S., Mirza, M., Dabiri, M., 2004. The essential oil of Tagetes erecta L. occurring in Iran. Flavour Frag. J. 19, 579–581.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, M.L., Nigam, M.C., Handa, K.L., Chopra, I.C., 1961. Essential oil of Tagetes erecta. Perfum. Essential Oil Rec. 4, 561–562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, G., Singh, O.P., De Lampasona, M.P., Catalan, C., 2003. Studies on essential oils. Part 35: Chemical and biocidal investigations on Tagetes erecta leaf volatile oil. Flavour Fragr. J. 18, 62–65.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stasi, L.C., Hiruma-Lima, C.A., 2002. Plantas medicinais na Amazônia e na Mata Atlântica, 2nd ed. UNESP, São Paulo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suffness, M., Pezzuto, J.M., 1990. Assays related to cancer drug discovery. In: Hostettmann, K. (Ed.), Methods in Plant Biochemistry: Assays for Bioactivity. Academic Press, London, pp. 71–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tinoco, M.T., Martins, M.R., Cruz-Morais, J., 2007. Antimicrobial activity of Foeniculum vulgare Miller essential oil. Rev. Ciências Agrárias 30, 448–454.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tonuci, L.R.S., Melo, N.I., Dias, H.J., Wakabayashi, K.A.L., Aguiar, G.P., Aguiar, D.P., Mantovani, A.L.L., Ramos, R.C., Groppo, M., Rodrigues, V., Veneziani, R.C.S., Cunha, W.R., Silva-Filho, A.A., Magalhães, L.G., Crotti, A.E.M., 2012. In vitro schistosomicidal effects of the essential oil of Tagetes erecta. Rev. Bras. Farmacogn 22, 88–93.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vallisuta, O., Nukoolkarn, V., Mitrevi, A., Sarisuta, N., Leelapornpisid, P., Phrutivorapongkul, A., Sinchaipanid, N., 2014. In vitro studies on the cytotoxicity and elastase and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) flower extracts. Exp. Ther. Med. 7, 246–250.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Villarini, M., Pagiotti, R., Dominici, L., Fatigoni, C., Vanini, S., Levorato, S., Moretti, M., 2014. Investigation of the cytotoxic, genotoxic, and apoptosis-inducing effects of estragole isolated from the fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). J. Nat. Prod. 77, 773–778.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wakabayashi, K.A.L., Melo, N.I., Aguiar, D.P., Oliveira, P.F., Groppo, M., Silva-Filho, A.A., Rodrigues, V., Cunha, W.R., Tavares, D.C., Magalhães, L.G., Crotti, A.E.M., 2015. Anthelmintic effects of the essential oil of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Apiaceae) against Schistosoma mansoni. Chem. Biodiv. 12 (Epub ahead of print).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the FAPESP Brazil, for a PhD scholarship (P.F.O; grant # 2009/21310-2) and the financial support (grant # 2007/54241-8). The authors are also grateful to CNPq for fellowships.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade de Franca, Av. Dr. Armando Salles de Oliveira, 201–Parque Universitário, 14404-600, Franca, São Paulo, Brazil

    Pollyanna Francielli de Oliveira, Jacqueline Morais Alves, Jaqueline Lopes Damasceno, Renata Aparecida Machado Oliveira & Denise Crispim Tavares

  2. Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes, 3.900 Monte Alegre, 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil

    Herbert Júnior Dias & Antônio Eduardo Miller Crotti

Authors
  1. Pollyanna Francielli de Oliveira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jacqueline Morais Alves
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jaqueline Lopes Damasceno
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Renata Aparecida Machado Oliveira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Herbert Júnior Dias
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Antônio Eduardo Miller Crotti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Denise Crispim Tavares
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

HJD contributed in the essential oil extractions and GC-FID andGC-MS analyses. PFO, JMA, JLD and RAMO contributed to biologicalassays and helped in the draft of the manuscript. AEMC collectedthe plant, confected the herbarium samples to taxonomic identifi-cation, supervised the GC-FID and GC-MS analyses and helped in the draft of the manuscript. DCT supervised the biological tests. Allthe authors have read the final manuscript and approved the latesubmission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pollyanna Francielli de Oliveira.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Rights and permissions

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

de Oliveira, P.F., Alves, J.M., Damasceno, J.L. et al. Cytotoxicity screening of essential oils in cancer cell lines. Rev. Bras. Farmacogn. 25, 183–188 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjp.2015.02.009

Download citation

  • Received: 02 December 2014

  • Accepted: 14 February 2015

  • Published: 01 April 2015

  • Issue Date: April 2015

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjp.2015.02.009

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Keywords

  • Tagetes erecta
  • Tetradenia riparia
  • Bidens sulphurea
  • Foeniculum vulgare
  • Cytotoxicity
Use our pre-submission checklist

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Advertisement

Search

Navigation

  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us

Discover content

  • Journals A-Z
  • Books A-Z

Publish with us

  • Publish your research
  • Open access publishing

Products and services

  • Our products
  • Librarians
  • Societies
  • Partners and advertisers

Our imprints

  • Springer
  • Nature Portfolio
  • BMC
  • Palgrave Macmillan
  • Apress
  • Your US state privacy rights
  • Accessibility statement
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Help and support

Not affiliated

Springer Nature

© 2023 Springer Nature