In Vitro Antiproliferative and Antimicrobial Activity of the Essential Oil from the Flowers and Leaves of Helichrysum Italicum (roth) G. Don Growing in Central Dalmatia (Croatia)

In the present paper, chemical composition, in vitro antimicrobial and antiproliferative activity of the essential oil from the flowers and leaves of Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don (Central Dalmatia, Croatia) as a potential replacement for standard antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents was analyzed. Essential oil was isolated by steam distillation and analyzed by GC/MS. Antimicrobial activity was carried out by agar-well diffusion and microdilution assays with Gram (+), Gram (-) bacteria and one yeast. Antiproliferative effect, apoptosis induction and cell death on cancer cell lines: HeLa, MCF-7, SW620, CFPAC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 were analyzed by cell viability and Annexin-V assay as well as by flow cytometric analysis. In essential oil, -pinene, -curcumene and neryl acetate was found as major compounds. The antimicrobial assays, showed that essential oil had weak to moderate antimicrobial potential with S. aureus and S. epidermidis as the most sensitive bacterial strains. Essential oil treatment possessed moderate antiproliferative impact on MCF-7 and HeLa cell lines, while analyzing cell cycle treatment had no significant effect on tested cells except on MIA PaCa-2 with the highest cells increase in sub G1 phase cell cycle. However, treatment caused significantly induction of apoptosis in MCF-7 and HeLa cells, but not in MIA PaCa-2 cells. In this cell line, multiple cell death mechanism existed with involving apoptosis, senescence or necrosis. Results of the study provide a promising basis for the evaluation of the potential use of essential oil from H. italicum (Roth) G. Don as a source of alternative nature antibiotics or anticancer agents for the prevention or treatment of different diseases.