Investigation of Cytotoxic Effect of Monoterpenes Beta-Citronellol and (-)-Menthone in Human Breast Cancer (MCF-7) Cell Line

Objective: Monoterpenes are the primary components of plant essential oils which can use in medicines, food or cosmetic industries. Many terpenoids exhibit a various pharmacological activities such as antiallergic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anticancer. However no enough data are found about cytotoxicity of these compounds on human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential cytotoxic effects of monoterpenes Beta-Citronellol (BC) and (-)-Menthone (MNT) using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in MCF-7 cell line. Methods: In this study, the cytotoxic effects of monoterpenes BC and MNT were analyzed by MTT assay at 24 and 48 hour treatment times in the MCF-7 cell line. MCF-7 cells were treated with different concentrations of BC (2, 10, 50, 250, 1250 μg/mL) and MNT (16, 80, 400, 2000, 10.000 μg/mL). Results: BC and MNT were significantly decreased cell viability (%) at all concentrations at 24-h treatment period. Furthermore, BC (250, 1250 μg/mL) and MNT (16, 400, 2000, 10.000 μg/mL) were significantly reduced the cell viability at 48-h treatment. Conclusion: As a result, BC and MNT showed cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 cells in both treatment times. Further studies should be conducted to determination cytotoxicity using different cell lines