Chemical evaluation and in vitro cytotoxic activity of Copaifera reticulata Ducke oleoresin in cancer cell lines

Copaiba oleoresin is a natural product widely used in traditional Amazonian medicine in the treatment and cure of various ailments, having various biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, cicatrizant, antiseptic and antimicrobial. Cancer is one of the main public health problems, being the cause of thousands of deaths around the world. In view of the pharmacological properties of copaiba oleoresin, the investigation of its anticancer potential may be an alternative for obtaining new anticancer phytopharmaceuticals. The objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition and in vitro cytotoxic activity of oleoresin (OR) from Copaifera reticulata Ducke in cancer cell lines. The OR was distilled generating the volatile (VF) and resinous (RF) fractions, and the chemical composition was analyzed by GC-MS. In the in vitro cytotoxic evaluation, tumor and leukemic cell lines were tested by the MTT assay. The quantification of cells in apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry. Twenty-four sesquiterpenes and four diterpenes were identified. RF showed the lowest IC50 in strains Jurkat, Nalm 6, HOS, PC3 and H1299. The MCF7 strain was more sensitive to VF. The oleoresin and its fractions induced more than 80% of the H1299 cell line to apoptosis, especially the RF. The results confirmed the in vitro cytotoxic activity of oleoresin from C. reticulata against the tested cell lines and evidenced its potential in the production of new anticancer phytopharmaceuticals.