Chemical composition and in vitro cytotoxicity of Cyclotrichium niveum essential oil against human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells

The current study is aimed to investigate the essential oil yields, chemical compositions and in vitro cytotoxic activities of Cyclotrichium niveum (Boiss.) Manden et Scheng. C. niveum is an endemic species of Turkiye, generally used as a spice in local cuisine and traditional medicine. The plant material was collected from Yesilyurt province of Malatya in August. Hydrodistillation yielded 1.41% (g/g) essential oil. The majority of the essential oil was dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes mainly pulegone (56.83%) and isomenthone (29.06%). Cytotoxicity tests of C. niveum essential oil on MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma cells) and A549 (human lung adenocarcinoma alveolar basal epithelial cells) cell lines represented promising results. IC50 values on MCF-7 and A549 were found to be 31.68 mu g/mL and 66.70 mu g/mL respectively. In the current work, we have shown for the first time that C. niveum essential oil has cytotoxic properties in the cancer cell lines tested.