Composition and potential anticancer activities of essential oils obtained from myrrh and frankincense

The present study aimed to investigate the composition and potential anticancer activities of essential oils obtained from two species, myrrh and frankincense, by hydrodistillation. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), 76 and 99 components were identified in the myrrh and frankincense...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oncology letters 2013-10, Vol.6 (4), p.1140-1146
Main Authors: CHEN, YINGLI, ZHOU, CHUNLAN, GE, ZHENDAN, LIU, YUFA, LIU, YUMING, FENG, WEIYI, LI, SEN, CHEN, GUOYOU, WEI, TAIMING
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
antiproliferative activity
Apoptosis
Cancer
Cell growth
Chinese medicine
Drugs
essential oil
frankincense
gas chromatography mass spectrometry
myrrh
Oils & fats
Oncology
Temperature
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Summary:The present study aimed to investigate the composition and potential anticancer activities of essential oils obtained from two species, myrrh and frankincense, by hydrodistillation. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), 76 and 99 components were identified in the myrrh and frankincense essential oils, respectively, with the most abundant components, 2-Cyclohexen-1-one, 4-ethynyl-4-hydroxy-3,5,5-trimethyl- and n-Octylacetate, accounting for 12.01 and 34.66%, respectively. The effects of the two essential oils, independently and as a mixture, on five tumor cell lines, MCF-7, HS-1, HepG2, HeLa and A549, were investigated using the MTT assay. The results indicated that the MCF-7 and HS-1 cell lines showed increased sensitivity to the myrrh and frankincense essential oils compared with the remaining cell lines. In addition, the anticancer effects of myrrh were markedly increased compared with those of frankincense, however, no significant synergistic effects were identified. The flow cytometry results indicated that apoptosis may be a major contributor to the biological efficacy of MCF-7 cells.
ISSN:1792-1074
1792-1082
DOI:10.3892/ol.2013.1520