Studies on chemical constituents and anti-hepatoma effects of essential oil from Annona squamosa L. pericarps.

Annona squamosa L. fruit played great anti-neoplastic activities. Its pericarps were discarded as waste. In this study, essential oil extracted from A. squamosa L. pericarps (APEO) was obtained by hydrodistillation and analysed by GC-MS. Furthermore, the anti-hepatoma activities and the underlying mechanism of the oil were firstly described. A total of 59 compounds were identified by Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The major compound in the oil was (-)-spathulenol (32.51%). The APEO demonstrated anti-hepatoma activity against SMMC-7721 hepatoma cell line with IC lower than 55 μg/mL. At the same time, nucleus shrinkage or broken were found in cells incubated with APEO through fluorescent microscope. In addition, pro-apoptosis and cell cycle arrest effects were confirmed by flow cytometry analysis.