Antioxidant and Anticancer Activities of Anethum graveolens L., Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck and Zingiber officinale Roscoe Essential Oils

Mahmoud Osanloo; Ali Ghanbariasad; Ali Taghinezhad

doi:10.18502/tim.v6i4.8266

Mahmoud Osanloo Department of Medical Nanotechnology, Schools of Advanced Medicine in Technologies, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran
Ali Ghanbariasad Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran
Ali Taghinezhad Department of Medical Biotechnology, Schools of Medicine, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/tim.v6i4.8266

Keywords: Citrus limon; Anethum graveolens; Zingiber officinale; Anticancer activity; Antioxidant effects

Abstract

Since synthetic chemotherapeutic drugs produce a certain degree of drug resistance and due to their common side effects, such as damage to hematopoietic cells and hair loss, it is necessary to use herbal medicine as a substrate to develop new anticancer drugs. The ingredients of three essential oils (EO) were identified using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Their anticancer activities have been investigated on four human breast cancer cell lines, including MCF-7, MDA-MB-175, MDA-MB-231, and MDA-MB-468. In addition, their antioxidant activity was evaluated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The three plants were investigated for identifications of the ingredients of their EOs, and major ingredients were identified in each plant as alpha-phellandrene (26.75 %) in Anethum graveolens L., limonene (61.83 %) in Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck, and zingiberene (30.28 %) in Zingiber officinale Roscoe. Among the EOs, C. limon was significantly more effective than others; its half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) on MCF-7 was obtained at 201 µg.mL^-1. Furthermore, Z. officinale EO showed a higher antioxidant activities in comparison to the two other EOs. Considering the antioxidant and anticancer effects of the EOs, they could be further investigated as a possible complementary medicine in cancer.