Planta Med 2009; 75 - PE19
DOI: 10.1055/s-0029-1234580

Cytotoxicity, antioxidant and composition of the essential oil of Dracocephalum surmandinum Rech. from Iran

A Sonboli 1, A Gholipour 2, 3, MA Esmaeili 1, MR Kanani 1
  • 1Department of Biology, Medicinal Plants and Drugs Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C. Evin, 1983963113, Tehran, Iran
  • 2Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, 1983963113, Tehran, Iran
  • 3Payame Noor University (PNU)

The chemical composition of hydrodistilled essential oil from the aerial flowering parts of D. surmandinum was analyzed for the first time by GC and GC-MS. Monoterpenoids including oxygenated and hydrocarbons comprising 63.4 and 33.9% were the principal compound groups of the essential oil, respectively. In total, 25 constituents accounting for 97.8% of the oil were identified [1]. Perilla aldehyde (54.3%) and limonene (30.1%) were characterized as the main components. In addition, our results indicated that the essential oil of D. surmandinum (5–100µg/ml) possesses a marked antioxidant and radical scavenging activity using different model systems including Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, β-carotene-linoleic acid blenching and 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) assays [2]. The cytotoxicity activity was also carried out using the MTT assay [3]. Results showed that the essential oil of D. surmandinum has a good cytotoxic activity against Human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) and Human erythromyeloblastoid leukemia cell line (K562) with an IC50 value of 14 and 16µg/ml, respectively. However, the cytotoxic potential of D. surmandinum essential oil against Rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cell line (PC 12) was weak (IC50 of >100µg/ml).

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Shahid Beheshti University Research Council for financial support of this work.

References: [1] Adams, R. (2007) Identification of essential oil components by gas chromatography/quadropole mass spectroscopy. Allured Publishing Corporation, Carol Stream.

[2] Blois, M.S. (1958) Nature 181:1199–1200.

[3] Vistica, D.T. et al. (1991) Cancer Res. 51:2515–2520.