Potential anti-cancer activity of furanodiene

Abstract

To study the anti-tumor activities of furanodiene (C15H20O), a primary sesquiterpene compound isolated from the essential oil of the rhizome of Curcuma wenyujin YH Chen et C. Ling(Wen Ezhu), in vitro and in vivo. In vitro MTT assay was used to further study the effects of time and dosage on anti-proliferation of furanodiene against the sensitive Hela, Hep-2, HL-60, U251 cells, based on the cytotoxic effects of furanodiene on 12 human malignant tumor cell lines with the essential oil of Wen Ezhu as control., and the half-inhibitory concentration (IC50) was observed. In vivo uterine cervix (U14) tumor cell was selected and the conventional assay method of anti-tumor activity was employed. Furanodiene liposome was administered intraperitoneally, and tumor-inhibitory rate, thymus and spleen indexes were observed. The inhibitive effects on cell proliferation were shown in all of the twelve cell lines and the cytotoxic effects of furanodiene against Hela, Hep-2, HL-60, U251 cells were observed after 12 h of administration, the effect could last for at least 48 h in a dose dependent manner, and the IC50 values were 0.6, 1.7, 1.8, 7.0 μg/ml, respectively. Furanodiene was also found to show inhibitive effects on the proliferation of uterine cervix (U14) tumor induced in mice. The tumor inhibition rates were 36.09% (40 mg/kg), 41.55% (60 mg/kg), 58.29% (80 mg/kg), respectively. Furanodiene is one of primary anti-cancer active components in the essential oil of Wen Ezhu, and also a very effective agent against uterine cervix cancer, and has protection effect on the immune function.