Molecules 2010, 15(5), 3200-3210; doi:10.3390/molecules15053200
Article

Activities of Ten Essential Oils towards Propionibacterium acnes and PC-3, A-549 and MCF-7 Cancer Cells

Yuangang Zu 1,2, email, Huimin Yu 3, email, Lu Liang 1,2 email, Yujie Fu 1,2,* email, Thomas Efferth 4 email, Xia Liu 1,2 email and Nan Wu 1,2 email
1 Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China 2 Engineering Research Center of Forest Bio-preparation, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China 3 Chinese Medicine Department, The Second Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, China 4 Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy, University of Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany These authors contributed equally to this work.
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 25 February 2010; in revised form: 20 April 2010 / Accepted: 20 April 2010 / Published: 30 April 2010
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Abstract: Ten essential oils, namely, mint (Mentha spicata L.,Lamiaceae), ginger (Zingiber officinaleRosc.,Zingiberaceae), lemon (Citrus limon Burm.f.,Rutaceae), grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf., Rutaceae), jasmine (Jasminum grandiflora L.,Oleaceae), lavender (Mill.,Lamiaceae), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L., Compositae), thyme (Thymus vulgaris L., Lamiaceae), rose (Rosa damascena Mill.,Rosaceae) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicumN. Lauraceae) were tested for their antibacterial activities towards Propionibacterium acnes and in vitro toxicology against three human cancer cell lines. Thyme, cinnamon and rose essential oils exhibited the best antibacterial activities towards P. acnes, with inhibition diameters of 40 ± 1.2 mm, 33.5 ± 1.5 mm and 16.5 ± 0.7 mm, and minimal inhibitory concentrations of 0.016% (v/v), 0.016% (v/v) and 0.031% (v/v), respectively. Time-kill dynamic procedures showed that thyme, cinnamon, rose, and lavender essential oils exhibited the strongest bactericidal activities at a concentration of 0.25% (v/v), and P. acnes was completely killed after 5 min. The thyme essential oil exhibited the strongest cytotoxicity towards three human cancer cells. Its inhibition concentration 50% (IC50) values on PC-3, A549 and MCF-7 tumor cell lines were 0.010% (v/v), 0.011% (v/v) and 0.030% (v/v), respectively. The cytotoxicity of 10 essential oils on human prostate carcinoma cell (PC-3) was significantly stronger than on human lung carcinoma (A549) and human breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines.
Keywords: essential oils; activities; Propionibacterium acnes; cytotoxicity; cancer cell lines

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MDPI and ACS Style

Zu, Y.; Yu, H.; Liang, L.; Fu, Y.; Efferth, T.; Liu, X.; Wu, N. Activities of Ten Essential Oils towards Propionibacterium acnes and PC-3, A-549 and MCF-7 Cancer Cells. Molecules 2010, 15, 3200-3210.

AMA Style

Zu Y, Yu H, Liang L, Fu Y, Efferth T, Liu X, Wu N. Activities of Ten Essential Oils towards Propionibacterium acnes and PC-3, A-549 and MCF-7 Cancer Cells. Molecules. 2010; 15(5):3200-3210.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zu, Yuangang; Yu, Huimin; Liang, Lu; Fu, Yujie; Efferth, Thomas; Liu, Xia; Wu, Nan. 2010. "Activities of Ten Essential Oils towards Propionibacterium acnes and PC-3, A-549 and MCF-7 Cancer Cells." Molecules 15, no. 5: 3200-3210.

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