[Chemical composition of essential oil from Thymus citriodorus and its toxic effect on liver cancer cells].

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the chemical composition of essential oil from Thymus citriodorus and its toxic effect on liver cancer cells.

METHODS

The essential oil from Thymus citriodorus leaves was extracted by steam distillation, and GC-MS was used for analyzing chemical composition. 35 components were identified which accounted for 95.44% of the total peak area. The main components were borneol (28.82%), thymol (14.43%), 3, 7-dimethyl-1, 6-octadiene-3-ol (8.26%), 1-methyl-4-[alpha-hydroxy-isopropyl] cyclohexene (8.23%) and terpenes camphor (5.1%), et. al. The toxic effects on HepG2 cells and expression of NF-kappabeta65 were measured by MTT assay and confocal laser scanning microscopy, respectively.

RESULTS

The IC50 of HepG2 cells inhibition was 0.34%. The mean fluorescence intensity of NF-kappabeta65 expression was as follows: control group 323.25, 2(-10) concentration group 84.18, 2(-11) concentration group 197.93 and 2(-12) concentration group 261.43.

CONCLUSIONS

The essential oil from Thymus citriodorus leaves has strong toxic effects. The induced apoptosis mechanism may be associated with the expression of NF-kappabeta65.