Abstract
Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in men, and research to find more effective and less toxic drugs has become necessary. In the frame of our ongoing program on traditionally used Salvia species from the Mediterranean Area, here we report the biological activities of Salvia aurea, S. judaica and S. viscosa essential oils against human prostate cancer cells (DU-145). The cell viability was measured by 3(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) test and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release was used to quantify necrosis cell death. Genomic DNA, caspase-3 activity, expression of cleaved caspase-9, B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2 associated X (Bax) proteins were analyzed in order to study the apoptotic process. The role of reactive oxygen species in cell death was also investigated. We found that the three essential oils, containing caryophyllene oxide as a main constituent, are capable of reducing the growth of human prostate cancer cells, activating an apoptotic process and increasing reactive oxygen species generation. These results suggest it could be profitable to further investigate the effects of these essential oils for their possible use as anticancer agents in prostate cancer, alone or in combination with chemotherapy agents.