Chemical profiling and cytotoxicity screening of agarwood essential oil (Aquilaria sinensis) in brine shrimp nauplii and cancer cell lines

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310770
• Publication Date: 2024-11-07T18:25:01Z
• Authors: Sook Wah Chan; Valizadeh Lakeh M...; Xin Wang; Ming-Li Teoh; Kar Min Loh; Chun Howe Ng; Won Fen Wong; Chung Yeng Looi
• Keywords: Agarwood; Brine shrimp; Brine; Cancer cell lines

Agarwood essential oil (AEO) has gained attention from healthcare industries due to its numerous pharmacological properties. However, a comprehensive understanding of the chemical composition and cytotoxic property is lacking. The objective this study was investigate profile as well concentration range AEO derived Aquilaria sinensis agarwood. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) employed identify components. Results showed that sesquiterpenes sesquiterpenoids constitute 95.85% AEO. Among major compounds identified are allo-aromadendrene (13.04%), dihydro-eudesmol (8.81%), α-eudesmol (8.48%), bulnesol (7.63%), τ-cadinol (4.95%), dehydrofukinone (3.83%), valerenol (3.54%), cis-nerolidol (2.75%), agarospirol (2.72%), dehydrojinkoh-eremol (2.53%), selina-3,11-dien-9-al (2.36%), guaiol (2.12%) caryophyllene oxide (2.0%). presence volatile quality marker such 10-epi-ϒ-eudesmol, aromadendrane, β-agarofuran, α-agarofuran, γ-eudesmol, guaiol, with no contaminants detected, indicates extracted high purity. Interestingly, displayed moderate toxicity in brine shrimp lethality test (BLST). All studied tumor cell lines (MDA-MB-231, HepG2, B16F10) exhibited varying degrees sensitivity AEO, which resulted time dose-dependent reduction proliferation. Moreover, flow cytometry analysis revealed could induce apoptosis treated HepG2 cells. Our findings contains bioactive components may be exploited future studies for development anti-cancer therapeutics.