Cytotoxicity of the Essential Oil of Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) from Tajikistan

Abstract

The essential oil of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is rich in lipophilic secondary metabolites, which can easily cross cell membranes by free diffusion. Several constituents of the oil carry reactive carbonyl groups in their ring structures. Carbonyl groups can react with amino groups of amino acid residues in proteins or in nucleotides of DNA to form Schiff’s bases. Fennel essential oil is rich in anise aldehyde, which should interfere with molecular targets in cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the chemical composition of the essential oil of fennel growing in Tajikistan. Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis revealed that the main components of F. vulgare oil were trans-anethole (36.8%); α-ethyl-p-methoxy-benzyl alcohol (9.1%); p-anisaldehyde (7.7%); carvone (4.9%); 1-phenyl-penta-2,4-diyne (4.8%) and fenchyl butanoate (4.2%). The oil exhibited moderate antioxidant activities. The potential cytotoxic activity was studied against HeLa (human cervical cancer), Caco-2 (human colorectal adenocarcinoma), MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma), CCRF-CEM (human T lymphoblast leukaemia) and CEM/ADR5000 (adriamycin resistant leukaemia) cancer cell lines; IC50 values were between 30–210 mg L−1 and thus exhibited low cytotoxicity as compared to cytotoxic reference compounds.

Structural characterization and in vitro lipid binding studies of non-specific lipid transfer protein 1 (nsLTP1) from fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) seeds

“…5TVI is selected as the best template based on BLASTp result; it is 59.34% identical and 74% similar to fennel nsLTP1 with 100% query coverage and e-value of 3E−33. The homology modeling, therefore, indicated that the structure of fennel nsLTP1 has four α-helices: H1 (4-20), H2 (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38), H3 (42-57) and H4 (64-74); a long C-terminal tail (75-91); and three short loops at the positions of (21-25), (37-41), (58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63) residues. The study from the crystal structure of 5TVI depicted that these helices are engaged in the form of a hydrophobic cavity, where the overall structure is stabilized by the presence of four disulfide bonds that exist between cysteine (4-51), (14-28), and ) that are also retained by fennel nsLTP1 structure 16 .…”

Curry versus cancer: Potential of some selected culinary spices against cancer with in vitro, in vivo, and human trials evidences

“…Fennel seed methanolic extract (FSME) was found to exert remarkable anticancer potential in human MCF-7 and HepG-2 cell lines by reducing the oxidative stress (Mohamad et al, 2011). Essential oil of fennel, rich in anise aldehyde shows hepatoprotective activity (Sharopov et al, 2017). Cyclophosphamide thus protecting the liver from toxicity and also from carcinogenicity caused by Cyclophosphamide (Sheweita et al, 2016).…”

“…Fennel seed methanolic extract (FSME) was found to exert remarkable anticancer potential in human MCF‐7 and HepG‐2 cell lines by reducing the oxidative stress (Mohamad et al., 2011). Essential oil of fennel, rich in anise aldehyde shows hepatoprotective activity (Sharopov et al, 2017).…”

Bioactives in spices, and spice oleoresins: Phytochemicals and their beneficial effects in food preservation and health promotion

“…Moreover, fennel essential oil is rich in aldehyde content, which interferes with molecular targets in cells and causes a low cytotoxicity. Sharopov et al (2017) summarized that the fennel essential oil exhibited potent cytotoxic activity against human cervical cancer, colorectal adenocarcinoma, breast adenocarcinoma, T lymphoblast leukemia, and adriamycin-resistant leukemia cancer cell lines. Furthermore, fenugreek also exerted anticancer effects due to its bioactive constituents such as saponins and flavonoids.…”