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Chemical composition and antiproliferative activity of essential oil from the leaves of a medicinal herb, Schefflera heptaphylla
Author(s) -
Li YaoLan,
Yeung ChungMan,
Chiu Lawrence C. M.,
Cen YingZhou,
Ooi Vincent E. C.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
phytotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.019
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1573
pISSN - 0951-418X
DOI - 10.1002/ptr.2567
Subject(s) - essential oil , monoterpene , herb , traditional medicine , ingredient , chemistry , pinene , cancer cell lines , pharmacognosy , cytotoxicity , composition (language) , medicinal herbs , botany , biology , food science , biological activity , cancer cell , in vitro , biochemistry , medicine , cancer , genetics , linguistics , philosophy
Schefflera heptaphylla (L.) Frodin is a medicinal herb widely used as a main ingredient of the popular health tea formulation against infections in Southern China. Twenty‐seven volatile compounds were identified by GC‐MS analysis from the essential oil obtained from the leaves of S. heptaphylla , and 17 of them belonged to monoterpenes or sesquiterpenes. The main volatile constituent in S. heptaphylla was found to be a monoterpene, β ‐pinene, comprising about 22% of the total volatile components. The essential oil showed significant antiproliferative activity against three cancer cell lines, MCF‐7, A375 and HepG2 cells, with IC 50 values of 7.3 µg/mL, 7.5 µg/mL and 6.9 µg/mL, respectively. The result of the cytotoxicity assay indicates that (−)‐ β ‐pinene and (+)‐ β ‐pinene (commercially available from Sigma) also possessed antiproliferative activity against the cancer cells MCF‐7, A375 and HepG2 with IC 50 values ranging from 147.1 to 264.7 µ m . Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.