Chemical composition, anti-angiogenic and cytotoxicity activities of the essential oils of Cymbopogan citratus (lemon grass) against colorectal and breast carcinoma cell lines

• Published in: The Journal of essential oil research Vol. 24; no. 5; pp. 453 - 459
• Main Authors: Piaru, Suthagar Pillai, Perumal, Shanmugapriya, Cai, Lee Wei, Mahmud, Roziahanim, Majid, Amin Malik Shah Abdul, Ismail, Sabariah, Man, Che Nin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01-01-2012
• Subjects: angiogenesis; breast neoplasms; chemical composition; colorectal neoplasms; Cymbopogan citratus; Cymbopogon; cytotoxicity; essential oil; essential oil composition; free radical scavengers; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; geranial; humans; inhibitory concentration 50; ionization; lemon oil; neoplasm cells; neral; oils; rats; steam distillation
• ISSN: 2163-8152; 1041-2905; 2163-8152
• DOI: 10.1080/10412905.2012.703496

The essential oil of Cymbopogan citratus (lemon grass) was isolated by steam distillation method and subjected to cytotoxicity activity using two different cell lines, human colon carcinoma (HCT-116), breast carcinoma cell lines (MCF-7) and anti-angiogenic activity. The cytotoxicity activity study was determined using the MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2,4-tetrazolium bromide] assay and anti-angiogenic activity using rat aortic ring model. The chemical composition of the essential oil was determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and GC–flame ionization detection (FID). Forty-one compounds, representing 88.5% of the lemon grass oil was identified and the main components were neral (29.8%) and geranial (44.6%). The free radical scavenging activity of the essential oil showed an IC ₅₀ value of 156.1 μg/mL. The results showed that essential oil of lemon grass possessed potential cytotoxic effect on HCT-116 and with the IC ₅₀ value of 27.41 ± 4.3 μg/mL comparing to MCF-7 with IC ₅₀ value of 41.90 ± 1.2 μg/mL. Significant anti-angiogenic activity of the sample was observed with 99 ± 0.8% of inhibition at 100 μg/mL.