Evaluation of in vitro Cytotoxicity of Essential Oil from Clausena dentata (Willd) Grown in Western Ghats Region, South India

Abstract

The present study examines the in vitro cytotoxicity of essential oil from Clausena dentata against the HeLa Cancer cell line and NIH 3T3 normal fibroblast by using methyl thiazol tetrazolium assay. The hydrodistilled essential oil of C. dentata was analyzed by GC-MS and results revealed that the chemical composition of essential oil of C. dentata contains 23 compounds. The major chemical compositions of oil were sabinene (19.70 %), β-caryophyllene oxide (17.90 %), cis-(R,2R)-hydroxy-2-methylindane (18.40 %) and ethanone 1,2-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl (7.85 %). The minor compounds were α-myrcene (3.48 %), spathulenol (2.44 %), isospathulenol (1.22 %), caryophyllene (1.08 %), curzerene (1.01 %), nerol (0.23 %), α-pinene (0.65 %), neryl acetate (0.47 %) etc. The in vitro cytotoxicity was investigated by methyl thiazol tetrazolium assay against HeLa and NIH-3T3 cell lines with different concentrations of essential oil (18.5-300 µg/mL). The results revealed that the essential oil showed concentration dependant activity against both employed cell lines. The IC50 value of HeLa and NIH3T3 were 75.3 and 99.83 µg/mL, respectively.