Journal of Medicinal Food 2014-10-01

Composition and antiproliferative effect of essential oil of Origanum vulgare against tumor cell lines.

Karine Rech Begnini, Fernanda Nedel, Rafael Guerra Lund, Pedro Henrique de Azambuja Carvalho, Maria Regina Alves Rodrigues, Fátima Tereza Alves Beira, Francisco Augusto Burkert Del-Pino

Index: J. Med. Food 17(10) , 1129-33, (2014)

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Abstract

Cancer is a leading cause of death and is responsible for one in eight deaths worldwide. The use of herbs as complementary medicine for cancer, especially advanced cancer, has recently increased. The aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro, the antiproliferative effect of Origanum vulgare against human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), and human colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29). The essential oil (EO) was extracted from a bought amount of O. vulgare dried leaves and analyzed in a gas chromatograph interfaced with a mass selective detector. The cytotoxicity test was performed by sulforhodamine B assay. The results show that the EO is composed mostly of 4-terpineol and induces a high cytotoxicity effect in HT-29. In the MCF-7 cell line the EO was less effective. In conclusion, this study showed that O. vulgare main component is 4-terpineol and was effective in inducing cancer cell growth inhibition.