Antitumor Properties of the Leaf Essential Oil of Zornia brasiliensis

Abstract

Zornia brasiliensis, popularly known as "urinária", "urinana", and "carrapicho", is a medicinal plant used in Brazilian northeast folk medicine as a diuretic and against venereal diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the chemical composition and antitumor potential of the leaf essential oil of Z. brasiliensis. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus and analyzed by GC-MS and GC-FID. Its composition was characterized by the presence of trans-nerolidol, germacrene D, trans-caryophyllene, α-humulene, and farnesene as major constituents. In vitro cytotoxicity of the essential oil and some of its major constituents (trans-nerolidol, trans-caryophyllene, and α-humulene) was evaluated for tumor cell lines from different histotypes using the Alamar blue assay. The essential oil, but not the constituents tested, presented promising cytotoxicity. Furthermore, mice inoculated with B16-F10 mouse melanoma were used to confirm its in vivo effectiveness. An in vivo antitumor study showed tumor growth inhibition rates of 1.68-38.61 % (50 and 100 mg/kg, respectively). In conclusion, the leaf essential oil of Z. brasiliensis presents trans-nerolidol, germacrene D, trans-caryophyllene, α-humulene, and farnesene as major constituents and is able to inhibit cell proliferation in cultures as well as in tumor growth in mice.

Antitumour Activity of the Microencapsulation of Annona vepretorum Essential Oil

“…Table presents the results found. Our pre‐clinical anticancer drug screening programme, which is based in the United States National Cancer Institute programme, demonstrated that extracts/oils with IC 50 values below 30 μg/mL and pure compounds with IC 50 values below 4 μg/mL in tumour cell line assays are promising . Therefore, the EO obtained of A. vepretorum leaf presents promising results.…”

“…Systemic toxicological effects were investigated as previously described . Mice were weighed at the beginning and end of the experiment.…”

“…The in vivo antitumour effect was evaluated in C57BL/6 mice inoculated with B16‐F10 melanoma as previously described . Tumour cells (2 × 10 6 cells per 500 μL) were implanted subcutaneously into the left hind groin of mice.…”

Evaluation of the cytotoxic effects of Cyperus longus extract, fractions and its essential oil on the PC3 and MCF7 cancer cell lines

“…Several anticancer drugs, such as vincristine, etoposide, vinblastine, irinotecan, paclitaxel (taxol) and topotecan are botanical secondary metabolites or semi-synthetic derivatives ( 1 ). Apigenin ( 2 ), deguelin ( 3 ), kaempferol ( 4 ), luteolin ( 5 – 7 ), quercetin ( 8 – 11 ), rutin ( 12 – 16 ), tricin ( 17 ), xanthomicrol ( 18 ), α-copaene ( 19 ), α-humulene ( 20 , 21 ) and β-himachalene ( 22 ) are some botanical ingedients that have been investigated as possible future remedies for use in chemotherapy. Xanthomicrol and calycopterin have also been shown to exert potent inhibitory effects on microvessel outgrowth and that these anti-angiogenic effects enhance the antitumor activity ( 18 ).…”

Zornia (Leguminosae) no estado do Ceará, Nordeste do Brasil

“…é utilizada para o tratamento de disenteria e doenças venéreas na Índia (Arunkumar et al 2014). No Brasil, Z. brasiliensis é comumente usada como diurética (Costa et al 2015). Vários estudos identificaram ainda propriedades moluscicidas (Kloos et al 1987), antiespasmódica (Rojas et al 1999), antibiótica (Obi et al 2007;Arunkumar et al 2014), antitumoral (Arunkumar et al 2012;Costa et al 2015), antinociceptiva (Silva et al 2013) e antifúngica (Arunkumar et al 2014) em diferentes espécies de Zornia.…”