Volatile oil composition and antiproliferative activity of Hyptis spicigera Lam against human breast adenocarcinoma cells MCF-7.

Abstract

This study reported the chemical composition and the evaluation of the in vitro antiproliferative activity of volatile extracts of Hyptis spicigera (HS) on breast cancer cells MCF-7. Essential oils (EO) HS1 and HS2 extracted from leafy stems of H. spicigera by hydrodistillation after different harvesting periods were characterized by gas chromatography/flame ionization detector (GC/FID) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The cytotoxicity of these volatile extracts was tested in order to assess their antiproliferative activity on cancer cells MCF-7 by the resazurin test. Chromatographic analysis revealed several major compounds depending on the harvest period of vegetable. Sample HS1 was characterized by α-pinene (16.9%), sabinene (13.8%), β-pinene (9.6%) and 1,8-cineole (9.6%), while HS2 was potentially rich in β- caryophyllene (53.2%), caryophyllene oxide (5.4%) and α-humulene (3.8%). Biological investigations performed have shown that HS1 and HS2 were cytotoxic against MCF-7 cells. Inhibitory concentrations values (IC50 ) determined for this purpose were 170 and 84 µg/mL respectively for HS1 and HS2. Major compounds of the EO should be responsible for this inhibitory activity.