Chemical composition and evaluation of cytotoxic activity of Achillea falcata essential oil on HeLa and Caco-2 human cancer cell lines

Abstract

Plants and their products, e.g. essential oils are mostly considered as safe medicine products. In recent years, medicinal plants have used as natural products that contribute to the prevention and treatment of disease. Medicinal plants play a crucial role in traditional medicine and in the maintenance of human health worldwide. The majority of Achillea species include highly bioactive compounds, so they have therapeutic applications. In the present study, the aim was to investigate in vitro anti-oxidant and cytotoxic effects of Achillea falcata essential oil. The essential oil was extracted from aerial parts using Clevenger method and its components were determined using GC-MS analysis. The anti-oxidant potential of the essential oil was analyzed by DPPH and total phenolic content methods. MTT assay was used to detect cytotoxicity of the essential oil on human cervical cancer cells HeLa and colon cancer cells Caco-2. The results showed that essential oil exhibited a low DPPH scavenging activity, and 32.467 Gallic acid equivalents/g plant oil of total phenolic content. As concentration was increased, the essential oil exhibited a more powerful cytotoxic effect on HeLa and Caco-2 cancer cell lines indicating that Achillea falcate essential oil might include anti-cancer compounds triggering the cytotoxicity on HeLa and Caco-2 cancer cells. *Correspondence to: Hossam Murad, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Atomic Energy Commission of Syria (AECS), Syria, E-mail: hmurad@aec.org.sy Received: August 20, 2020; Accepted: August 30, 2020; Published: September 06, 2020 Introduction In the past few years, interest in the antioxidant and radical scavenging properties of medicinal herbs and their extracts has risen enormously. In fact, antioxidants contained in plants seem to be involved in the preservation of human health, e.g. by preventing cancer, slowing down the aging process and reducing the risk of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Oxidative damage is a hallmark of all these physio pathological conditions and plants, providing an exogenous source of antioxidants, may aid the natural defence systems of cells [1-3]. Therefore, the assessment of antioxidant and radical scavenging properties of traditionally widely used plants and plant extracts is an important issue in the quest both of new sources of natural antioxidants for functional foods, nutraceuticals [4,5] and of feasible and ‘natural’ alternatives to synthetic antioxidants in the food industry, since foodpreserving compounds are being restricted due to their inherent risk of carcinogenicity [6]. Achillea, one of the most important genera of the Compositae (Asteraceae) family, comprises more than 100 species around the world, mainly distributed in Europe, Asia and North Africa [7], In particular, Achillea falcata has been reported to have beneficial effects on internal hemorrhage, uterine hemorrhoid, stomach ailment, gastritis, and bladder stones [8]. In recent years, some pharmacological properties of this species were scientifically addressed. It has been demonstrated that some A.falcata sesquiterpene lactones are cytotoxic agents [9-12], its extracts/essential oil have antimicrobial, antioxidant and antiplatelet properties [8,13-16]. Botanical drugs based on or including A. falcata are regarded as completely safe for human use and non-toxic [8,17]. However, phytochemical, data regarding A.falcata, and the studies using the essential oil of A. falcata on cancer cell lines, are quite scarce [18,19]. The aim of this study was to evaluate antioxidant capacity and to investigate the effects of different concentrations of essential oil obtained from A.falcata on HeLa and Caco-2 cells and to assess the relationship with their total phenolic content, in the present study both chemical (free radical scavenging activity by DPPH) and MTT assay(cell viability of Hela and Caco-2 cell lines) were used. Material and methods