Anti-tumor Effects of Essential Oils of Red Clover and Ragweed on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell Line

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among Iranian women. Nowadays, the use of traditional medicinal plants has emerged as a tempting complementary to the treatment of breast cancer due to minimal side effects and less documented drug resistance. The aim of this study was to examine the anticancer effects of the essential oils of red clover and mature fruit of Bassia scoparia on MCF-7 cells. Methods: Essential oils were extracted from Bassia scoparia and red clover plants, by a Clevenger condenser and mass spectrometry was performed for qualitative analysis, then MCF-7 and HU02 cells were treated with different concentrations of these essential oils at different time intervals. The viability of cells was measured by the MTT assay. The results were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA and Tukey′s test. Results: Essential oils of Kochia scoparia and red clover have cytotoxic effects on MCF7 cells. The MTT analysis showed decreased cell viability percentage in treated cells (P < 0.05). In addition, the microscopic examination of cells treated with essential oils revealed morphological changes of apoptotic cells in MCF-7 cells. Conclusions: The findings of this study show that essential oils of Bassia scoparia and Red clover have toxic and anticancer effects on MCF-7 cells.

Current knowledge on genus Bassia All.: a comprehensive review on traditional use, phytochemistry, pharmacological activity, and nonmedical applications

“…The main compounds were α-thujaplicin (22.91%), phytone (8.66%), dictamnol (7.98%), butylated hydroxytoluene (7.49%), phytol (6.57%) and camphenolone (3.84%) (El-Shamy et al 2012). Kianinodeh et al (2017) observed a similar qualitative composition of the essential oil of B. scoparia. However, the essential oil obtained from the fruits of the plant that grows in Iran differed in its quantitative composition because it contained alkanes (n- 2000).…”

“…Furthermore, incubation of MCF-7 cells with essential oil resulted in changes in cellular morphology, manifested as star-shaped cells, vacuolation, cytoplasmic and cellular shrinkage. Pyknotic nuclei were also observed, suggesting stimulation of apoptosis in cells (Kianinodeh et al 2017).…”

“…Although members of the Bassia genus are not considered aromatic plants, several studies indicate that some of them can produce essential oils (El-Shamy et al 2012;Kianinodeh et al 2017;Abd-ElGawad et al 2020). Recently, thirty-four compounds were identified by the GC-MS method in the essential oil of the aerial parts of B. muricata.…”

“…Most published studies on the cytotoxic activity of the Bassia genus concern B. scoparia species, while two articles describe the activity of B. indica (Abdel-Hamid et al 2017;Aboul-Enein et al 2012) and one B. muricata (Al-Barri et al 2021). Interestingly, only two of the reviewed papers defined, at least partially, the chemical content of the extracts studied (Cho et al 2019;Wang et al 2014a) and one paper provided a full chemical characterization of the essential oil of B. scoparia seeds which was the object of the study (Kianinodeh et al 2017). Most of the results indicate a rather weak cytotoxic potential of Bassia extracts.…”

“…Anti-inflammatory activity of extracts and isolated substances of Bassia as the main constituents(Kianinodeh et al 2017). Hydrocarbons such as heptacosane, pentacosane, hexacosane, tetracosane, tricosane, and 9-tricosene were also detected in aerial parts of B. indica.…”