Cytotoxic Effects Of Extract Origanum Vulgare On Human Colon Cancer Cells

Origanum Vulgare contains chemical materials, that has anticonvulsant, antifungal, antioxidant,anti-inflammatory, anti-infection and antidiabetic properties, it stimulates central nervoussystem, a wellknown herbal medicine in Iran. The aim of the present study was to investigate thechemical composition, antioxidant, cytotoxic and apoptotic effect of Origanum Vulgare extractagainst human colon cancer (HT29) cells by using real-time polymerase chain reaction and flowcytometrymethods. This experimental study was carried out in Islamic Azad University, KazerunBranch. At first, the Origanum Vulgare chemical constituents were analyzed by gaschromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. In addition, antioxidant assay and anticancereffect was performed using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) methods, respectively. Weextracted total RNA molecules by using RNX solution, after which cDNA was synthesized. Finally,the pro-apoptotic (Bax) and anti-apoptotic (Bcl2) gene expression was performed by real-timepolymerase chain reaction and apoptotic effects were analyzed using Flow-cytometry method. Themajor components of Origanum vulgare were carvacrol, β-fenchyl alcohol, thymol, and γ-terpinene.The antioxidant activity of the extract was IC50= 0.7±0.04 mg/ml. Cytotoxic resultsrevealed that the Origanum vulgare extract have IC50= 23.4 ± 0.52 mg/ml against colon cancer(HT29) cell line and real-time polymerase chain reaction results showed the expression level of Baxand Bcl2 was increased and decreased respectively in colon cancer cell line (4.560 ±0.23 (P< 0.05),0.51 ± 0.29 (P< 0.05)). In addition, the flow-cytometry results indicated the 39.57% apoptosis incolon cancer cell line. According to the results, it seems that Origanum vulgare extract haspotential antioxidant and anticancer effects and it suggested that further studies were performedfor Origanum vulgare pharmaceutical importance.