Ducrosia ismaelis Asch. essential oil: chemical composition profile and anticancer, antimicrobial and antioxidant potential assessment

The essential oil of Ducrosia ismaelis Asch. (Apiaceae) that grows wild in Saudi Arabia was investigated utilizing gas chromatography (GC), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Fifty constituents were characterized, representing 96.1% of the total oil. The D. ismaelis essential oil (DIED) was distinguished by a high composition of oxygenated monoterpenes (51.6%). Decanal (40.6%), alpha-pinene (15.1%) and dodecanal (13.7%) were the fundamental components. Additionally, DIED was evaluated for its cytotoxic, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities. DIED revealed a great cytotoxic effectiveness against the tested cancer cell lines with IC50 values between 66.2 and 137.3 mu g/mL particularly against MCF-7 cancer cells. Furthermore, the induction of apoptosis against MCF-7 cells has been asserted using staining assay (annexin VFITC and/or propidium iodide (PI) dyes) and flow cytometry technique. The DIED possessed a strong antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacterial and fungal strains with MIC-values between 0.07 and 0.31 mg/ml. The values of MBC or MFC were almost once higher than those of MIC's. Moreover, the beta-carotene-bleaching and DPPH free radical-scavenging tests showed that DIED had a moderate activity (68%) as an antioxidant agent in decolouring of the beta-carotene at 1.0 mg/mL and a moderate radical scavenging for DPPH (66 and 72%) at 0.50 and 1.0 mg/mL.