Chemical composition and anti-proliferative activity of essential oils from some medicinal plants from Cachicadán, Región La Libertad, Perú

Abstract This study evaluated the chemical composition and anti-proliferative activity of essential oils (EOs) obtained by hydrodistillation from seven medicinal plants from Cachicadán, La Libertad Región, Perú. Limonene (0.64 to 44.43%) and linalool (0.36 to 2.12%) were identified in all EOs by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry analysis. The major components (relative intensity ≥ 10%) were cis-dihydro carvone, carvone, and cis-piperitone epoxide for Minthostachys mollis leaves; β-pinene, limonene, and ledol for Lepechinia heteromorpha leaves; limonene, neral, and geranial for Aloysia citriodora, both leaves and flowers; α-pinene, and limonene for Myrcianthes myrsinoides leaves; and α-pinene, β-myrcene, and (E)-β-Ocimene for Dalea carthagenensis leaves. Constituted by (Z)-β-ocimene, dihydrotagetone, (Z)-tagetone, and car-3-en-2-one, EO of Tagetes minuta leaves induced an irreversible cytostatic effect against MCF-7 human breast tumor cells. Further in vivo studies must be carried out to establish the safe and efficient dose of T. minuta EO as adjuvant treatment in oncological therapies. Graphical Abstract


Introduction
Cancer is a global public health problem, a large group of diseases characterized by disordered proliferation of cells that can invade adjacent tissues and spread to other organs.Globally, it is responsible for about 10 million deaths per year.the most incident tumours (new cases) are breast (women), lung, colon and rectum, prostate (men), skin (non-melanoma) and stomach (Sung et al. 2021).perú is going through a process called the epidemiological transition, in which the incidence of infectious diseases is supplanted by the incidence of chronic-degenerative diseases, such as cancer and metabolic syndrome, among others, following the global trend projected by the WHo (de La Cruz-Vargas and Correa-López 2017; CEpLan 2019).
Considering the incidence and mortality of cancer and the need of new therapeutic options, natural products obtained from local biodiversity is a promisor source of bioactive molecules including those with anticancer properties (Sauter 2020).Representing about 10% of the world's flora, the peruvian flora comprises approximately 25,000 species, of which about 30% are endemic (Lock et al. 2016).the different bioclimatic belts found in peru can explain, in part, the rich biodiversity (Yang et al. 2018).Essential oils consist of volatile and lipophilic compounds, and have been used since ancient times to impart aroma and flavour to various products, in addition to pharmacological applications (dhifi et al. 2016;Wińska et al. 2019).
Based on this context, the present study aimed to evaluate the chemical composition and the anti-proliferative activity of essential oils obtained from some peruvian medicinal herbs growing in 'La Botica' hill.
the chemical composition of the seven Eos (six from leaves and 1 from flowers, Figure S2, table S2) were stablished based on GC-mS analysis and comparison of obtained relative retention index and mass fragment pattern with those present in literature (adams 2007).Limonene (from 0.64%, in Eo E6, to 44.43%, in Eo E4) and linalol (from 0.36%, in Eo E6, to 2.12%, in Eo E1) were identified in all the seven Eos studied (table S2).Both monoterpenes were the most common substance found in different essential oils (pereira et al. 2018;Vieira et al. 2018).
the cytotoxic effect against different tumor cell lines has already been described for T. minuta essential oil obtained from dried leaves (ali et al. 2014;Shirazi et al. 2014), fresh flowers (mahmoud 2013;al-Zubairi et al. 2017) and dried aerial part (stems, leaves and flowers) (abdoul-Latif et al. 2022).these Eos showed differences in chemical composition in comparison to the E6 sample that may be related to the drying process and to the part of the plant used in each study.Considering the Eos evaluated in the present study, the irreversible cytostatic effect observed for E6 may be attributed to the combinatory effect of some compounds identified only in E6. the compounds ρ-cymene (Jamali et al. 2021), (Z)-β-ocimene (nguyen et al. 2022), verbenone (paduch et al. 2016(paduch et al. ), α-cadinol (dibwe et al. 2017(paduch et al. ), and kaurene (Kondoh et al. 2004) have demonstrated cytotoxic effect against different tumor and non-tumor cell lines.
in conclusion, the present study evaluated the chemical composition and the anti-proliferative activity of seven essential oils from native plants from Cachicadán, Santiago de Chuco, perú.this is the first report of irreversible cytostatic effect induced by the essential oil of T. minuta fresh leaves against mCF-7 cells.Considering the development of an herbal medicine using T. minuta Eo for adjuvant use in oncological therapies, complementary studies will be necessary both to elucidate the mechanism of action and to establish the safe dose.