Anticancer Research
M. officinalis (lemon balm) is a traditional herbal medicine widely diffused in theEuropean and Mediterranean region. M. officinalis essential oil has been shown topossess antibacterial (Friedman et al. 2004; Hancianu et al. 2008), antifungal(Mimica-Dukic et al. 2004; El Ouadi et al. 2017) and spasmolytic activities (Sadraeiet al. 2003) and antitumoral effect (De Sousa et al. 2004; Queiroz et al. 2014). Theanticancerogenic effect of the essential oil of the M. officinalis L. was investigatedby De Sousa et al. (2004) by an in vitro MTT cytotoxicity assay. It showed that thisoil was very effective against different human cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7,Caco-2, HL-60, K562) and a mouse cell line (B16F10). As evidenced by the reductionof 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), M. officinalis essential oil also possessedantioxidant activity. Queiroz et al. (2014) have studied the activity of the M.officinalis essential oil and its major component (citral) in glioblastoma multiforme(GBM) cell lines. GBM is the most common and aggressive form of glioma, andcurrent therapies are not effective. Interestingly, both the essential oil and citraldecreased the viability and induced apoptosis of GBM cells as demonstrated byDNA fragmentation and caspase-3 activation. Citral reduced the activity and downmodulatedthe expression of multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1).
