Assessment of developmental cardiotoxic effects of some commonly used phytochemicals in mouse embryonic D3 stem cell differentiation and chick embryonic cardiomyocyte micromass culture models

•Pregnant women may seek “harmless” therapies, mostly herbal medicines, to cope with common pregnancy symptoms.•Holy Basil (Eugenol) and Chamomile (α-Bisabolol) are recommended to promote calmness and reduce stress.•Cardiomyocyte differentiation, cell viability, protein content and ROS production were monitored in cardiomyocytes cultured in vitro.•Eugenol and α-Bisabolol decreased the contractility, cellular activity and elevated ROS levels at moderate to high concentrations in both systems.•The results suggest that only low concentrations of these components should be taken in pregnancy.

Pregnant women often use herbal medicines to alleviate symptoms of pregnancy. The active phytochemicals eugenol (from holy basil) and α-bisabolol (from chamomile) are recommended to promote calmness and reduce stress. There is evidence that both eugenol and α-bisabolol possess pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative effects and induce reactive oxygen species. The potential effect was examined by monitoring cardiomyocyte contractile activity (differentiation), cell activity, protein content and ROS production for mouse D3 embryonic stem cell and ‎chick embryonic micromass culture. The results showed that eugenol (0.01–80 μM) demonstrated effects on cell activity (both systems) and ROS production (stem cell system only), as well as decreasing the contractile activity and protein content at high concentrations in both systems. Additionally, α-bisabolol (0.01–80 μM) at high concentrations decreased the contractile activity and cell activity and in the stem cell system induced ROS production and decreased protein content. The results suggest only low concentrations should be ingested in pregnancy.‎

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