The leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis harvested from three different locations of Turkey were extracted by both methanolic and supercritical CO(2) extraction. Subsequently, six extracts and the active compounds, carnosic acid, and rosmarinic acid were applied to various human cancer cell lines including NCI-H82 (human, small cell lung, carcinoma), DU-145 (human, prostate, carcinoma), Hep-3B (human, black, liver, carcinoma, hepatocellular), K-562 (human chronic myeloid leukemia), MCF-7 (human, breast, adenocarcinoma), PC-3 (human, prostate, adenocarcinoma) and MDA-MB-231 (human, breast, adenocarcinoma) by MTT assay. Supercritical CO(2) extracts had superior antiproliferative effect compared to the soxhlet extracts. Although the extracts exhibited various cytotoxic effects against different cell lines, comparatively low IC(50) values ranging between 12.50 and 47.55 microg/ml were attained against K-562, being the most sensitive cell line. Moreover, carnosic acid caused the lowest cell viability with values ranging from 13 to 30 % at a concentration of 19 muM after 48 h of treatments, resulting in superior antiproliferative effect. Rosemary extract is a potential candidate to be included in the anti-cancer diet with pre-determined doses avoiding toxicity.

BACKGROUND: The most common commercially available pine bark extract is Pycnogenol  , a standardised extract of Pinus maritima, which has been reported to have cardiovascular benefits and enhance microcirculation. The present study was conducted to determine the chemical composition of four pine bark extracts, assess their biological activities and to compare the results with Pycnogenol  .

This study examined potential of the extracts obtained from the byproducts generated at commercial pecan nut shelling operations in cancer treatment. The subcritical water extracts obtained from two varieties, Native and Pawnee, were analyzed for their phenolic contents and compositions. Effects of the extracts on viability and IC50 of the human cell lines representing a broad range of cancer types, cervical, lung, skin, breast, colon and prostate cancers, were investigated. Although the effect of the temperature on the phenolic contents and compositions of the extracts was not statistically significant, the influence of the variety was extensive. The pecan shell extracts were not cytotoxic to the healthy cell line Vero in the concentration range examined. Some of the pecan shell extracts had greater efficay than Doxorubicin, a drug used in cancer chemotherapy, in reducing cancer cell viability. This study is novel and practical implications of the data generated in this study are noteworthy, because this is the first report on the beneficial effects of subcritical water extracts obtained from pecan shelling industry byproducts on a broad range of cancer cell lines. It is likely that the experimental data presented in this study will support and encourage future research on the biological pathways involved in the interactions of the cancer cells and the extracts. The findings of this study will facilitate research on downstream processing and purification of the crude extracts exhibiting high cancer cell cytotoxcity, potentially improving the final product efficacy and leading to commercial applications.