ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIPROLIFERATED ACTIVITIES AND GC/MS ANALYSIS OF EUCALYPTUS CAMALDULENSIS ESSENTIAL OIL

Abstract

The present investigation is design to determine the chemical composition of the essential oil of Eucalyptus camaldulensis grown in Egypt and to study its antioxidant and cytotoxic effects on different cancer and normal cell lines. The analysis of E. camaldulensis oil using GC/MS resulted in the identification of 43 compounds. The current results indicated that the essential oil has weak radical scavenging activity comparing with ascorbic acid and Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), while it has high potent ferrous ions chelating and total antioxidant activities comparing to ascorbic acid and BHT. Regarding cytotoxic effect, the essential oil has high potency cytotoxic effect on colon, prostate and breast cancer cell lines as well as moderate potency against liver and lung cell lines with IC₅₀ 19.8, 31.5, 34.9, 51.7 and 64.0µg/ml respectively. In the same pattern, the oil has high cytotoxic effect on normal epithelial retina cell line and moderate effect on normal skin fibroblast cell with IC₅₀ 41.3 and 60.6µg/ml respectively. This inhibition may be relevant to antioxidant and /or apoptotic effects. Therefore, the essential oil from E. camaldulensis is active candidates which could be used as antioxidant and antiproliferated agents against colon, breast and prostate cancer.