Studies have shown that herbal extractions may be effective against various diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease. In this study, we intended to evaluate the cytotoxicity and antioxidation activity of phytochemical constituents from the leaves of Aquilaria agallocha and the stems of Aquilaria sinensis.The chemical structures were identified by UV, IR, ESI-MS, 1H NMR and 13C NMR analyses. 5-hydroxy-7, 4'-dimethoxyflavone (1), 5, 3'-dihydroxy-7, 4'-dimethoxyflavone (2), 5-hydroxy-7, 3', 4'-trimethoxyflavone (3), 5, 7, 4′-trihydroxyflavone (4), and 3', 4', 5, 7-tetrahydroxyflavone (5) were isolated and further examined antioxidation and antiproliferation activity by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and MTT assay. According these results, 5-hydroxy-7, 3', 4'-trimethoxyflavone (3) had DPPH radical scavenging activity. Further, 5-hydroxy-7, 3', 4'-trimethoxyflavone (3) also showed significant positive anticancer activities (10-100 μM) against human skin cancer cell line A375 cells.

In this study, we aim to investigate the free radical scavenging, anti-melanogenic and antibacterial properties of crude extracts from peel and seed of Cinnamomum camphora. Results showed that methanol extract of peel was minor sensitive to Staphylococcus aureaus and Escherichia coli. The fractions obtained by n-hexane, ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol or water of peel and seed had significant antioxidant activity. The IC 50 value of n-butanol, water and ethyl acetate fraction of the peel exhibited 48.82, 221.32 and 647.85 μg/ml scavenging activity in DPPH free radical. The IC 50 value of nbutanol, water and ethyl acetate fraction of the peel exhibited 1135.47, 438.69 and 3127.09 μg/ml in metal chelating ability on ferrous ions assays. n-butanol fraction of peel displayed the best antioxidant activity in ABTS assay. Especially, IC 50 of the mushroom tyrosinase inhibition at n-hexane extraction of the seed was 53.68 μg/ml. The results obtained in the present investigation suggest that the crude extracts of peel and seed of C. camphora had promising antibacterial and antioxidant activity against free radicals. The n-butanol or water extract of peel may be further study to isolate the active compounds in the future.