Anticancer activity of Salvia officinalis essential oil and its principal constituents against hormone-dependent tumour cells

Objective: To investigate the in vitro antiproliferative action of essential oil from Salvia officinalis L. (S. officinalis) grown in Sicily (Italy), and its main components on hormone-dependent cancer cell lines. Methods: S. officinalis essential oil was prepared by hydrodistillation. The actions of the S. officinalis essential oil and its three principal components (?-thujone, 1,8-cineole and camphor) were evaluated in LNCaP cells (prostate carcinoma), MCF7 cells (breast carcinoma) and HeLa cells (cervical carcinoma) at various dosages and diverse time points. Cell viability and proliferation were estimated using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Results: S. officinalis essential oil at doses of 100 ?g/mL and 200 ?g/mL induced a significant reduction of cell viability in MCF7, LNCaP and HeLa cell lines after a 48-hour incubation. The same cell lines also showed decreased cell viability when they were treated with a mixture of three major components of the essential oil, at doses of 100 ?g/mL and 200 ?g/mL, after a 48-hour incubation. Conclusions: These preliminary results could shed light on the formulation of new therapeutic agents with antiproliferative activity. Thus supplementary investigations are fundamental to examine the molecular mechanisms of the anticancer effects of this species of Salvia in cancer cells and to achieve confirmation of its in vivo anticancer activity.