The Biological activity of Conocarpus erectus extracts and their application as cytotoxic agents

Abstract

Essential oils are found to have multiple active components which can show in vitro cytotoxic action against various cancerous cell lines. This study reports the in vitro cytotoxic effects of the essential oil from Conocarpus erectus (Combretaceae) growing wild in Egypt. Water-distilled essential oil of C. erectus was examined for its cytotoxic effects using a modified brine shrimp and MTT assays. Fresh leaves aerial part of C. erectus was subjected to hydro distillation using a Clevenger-type apparatusvolatile to obtain its volatile oil. Cytotoxicity of the essential oil was measured against HepG2 cancer cells and brine shrimps larva. The essential oil 50% cytotoxic concentrations were found to be 33μg/ml and 8.7μg/ml against brine shrimp and human liver carcinoma HepG2 cell line, respectively; thus the volatile oil displayed good cytotoxic action against the human tumor cell line. Moreover, C. erectus methanol extract was very effective; it exhibited cytotoxic activity against brine shrimp larva within IC50 value of 15μg/ml. The investigation from GC Mass, led to the identification of 12 constituents, representing 97.53% of the total oil, of which the major chemical constituents were identified by gas chromatography mass spectrometry as being rich in 3-(2,2 dimethylpropylid ene)bicyclo[3.3.1]nonane-2,4-dione (3) (67.12%), (decanoic acid derevatives (11) (7.77%), 22-tritetracontanone (12) (6.03%), 1- octanol, 2-butyl- (2) (5.51%) and oleic acid (6) (4.33%). This is the first report on anticancer potential and separation of essential oils from C. erectus. The findings of this study necessitate the need for further consideration of this essential oil in anti-neoplastic chemotherapy.