Antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of essential oil of Ocimum canum Sims. from India

Chemical composition analysis of essential oil isolated from the leaves of Ocimum canum Sims. reported the presence of thirty six compounds. The major compound was camphor (39.77%). In vitro antioxidant activity of the isolated oil showed dose dependent free radical scavenging activity against DPPH (IC50 523.55 ± 0.001 μg/mL) and hydroxyl radicals (491.12 ± 0.002 μg/mL), metal chelating (781.38 ± 0.001 μg/mL) and prevention of deoxyribose degradation (168.50 ± 0.003 μg/mL) activities were also calculated. Antioxidant activity of oil was less observed when compared with positive controls such as ascorbic acid and BHT (12.49 ± 0.002 and 30.14 ± 0.005, respectively). Significant cytotoxicity (IC50 value of 60 μg/mL) and DNA fragmentation was observed in breast cancer cells (MCF-7).