Chemical profile, antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic activities of essential oils of Pulicaria arabica against A549 lung cancer cell line.

Pulicaria arabica has been traditionally utilized in folk medicine for various purposes such as ulcer treatments as well as antidiarrheal agent. Herein, the chemical profiles of Pulicaria arabica essential oils (PAEOs) and the in vitro antiproliferative effect of PAEOs were investigated. Hydrodistillation was employed to prepare PAEOs which were then characterized by GC/MS, while the antiproliferative effects were investigated by MTT assay as well as flow cytometric and RT-PCR analysis. Sixty-four (99.99 %) constituents were recognized from PAEOs. Carvotanacetone (36.97 %), (-)-carvomenthone (27.20 %) and benzene, 2-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-1,4-dimethoxy- (6.92 %) were the main components. PAEOs displayed IC50 values ranging from 30 to 50 μg/mL. DNA content analysis revealed that A549 cells exposed to PAEOs exhibited an increase in G1 cells population. The flow cytometry analysis results also showed that the PAEOs antiproliferative effect was mediated via apoptosis induction. Furthermore, a modulation in the pro-apoptotic markers (caspase-3 and Bax) and anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2) was also observed. In conclusion, PAEOs exhibited a moderate anti-proliferative effect on A549 cells through modulating the cell cycle progression and apoptosis initiation. These findings could offer a potential therapeutic use of PAEOs in lung cancer treatment.