Composition and potential anticancer activities of essential oils obtained from myrrh and frankincense

Chen,Yingli; Zhou,Chunlan; Ge,Zhendan; Liu,Yufa; Liu,Yuming; Feng,Weiyi; Li,Sen; Chen,Guoyou; Wei,Taiming

doi:10.3892/ol.2013.1520

Composition and potential anticancer activities of essential oils obtained from myrrh and frankincense

Authors:
- Yingli Chen
- Chunlan Zhou
- Zhendan Ge
- Yufa Liu
- Yuming Liu
- Weiyi Feng
- Sen Li
- Guoyou Chen
- Taiming Wei
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Affiliations: College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University‑Daqing, Daqing, Heilongjiang 163319, P.R. China, Department of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong 250000, P.R. China, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300000, P.R. China, College of Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710001, P.R. China
Published online on: August 8, 2013 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2013.1520
Pages: 1140-1146

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Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the composition and potential anticancer activities of essential oils obtained from two species, myrrh and frankincense, by hydrodistillation. Using gas chromatography‑mass spectrometry (GC‑MS), 76 and 99 components were identified in the myrrh and frankincense essential oils, respectively, with the most abundant components, 2‑Cyclohexen‑1‑one, 4‑ethynyl‑4‑hydroxy‑3,5,5‑trimethyl‑ and n‑Octylacetate, accounting for 12.01 and 34.66%, respectively. The effects of the two essential oils, independently and as a mixture, on five tumor cell lines, MCF‑7, HS‑1, HepG2, HeLa and A549, were investigated using the MTT assay. The results indicated that the MCF‑7 and HS‑1 cell lines showed increased sensitivity to the myrrh and frankincense essential oils compared with the remaining cell lines. In addition, the anticancer effects of myrrh were markedly increased compared with those of frankincense, however, no significant synergistic effects were identified. The flow cytometry results indicated that apoptosis may be a major contributor to the biological efficacy of MCF‑7 cells.

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