An In Vitro Anti-Cancer Activity of Essential Oil by Inducing Apoptosis in Human Gastric Cancer Cell Line.

: The effects of essential oil (OTEO) against gastric cancer remain unknown and merit investigation. : In the present study, the anti-cancer activity of OTEO was examined in a human gastric cancer cell line (AGS). After OTEO treatment, AGS cell viability was determined by an MTT assay, and inhibition of metastasis was determined by cell migration and invasion assays. The expression of apoptosis-related genes in treated AGS cells was determined by qRT-PCR. : OTEO significantly decreased AGS cell viability in a dose-dependent manner (IC 163.42 µg/mL) and effectively inhibited cell migration and invasion. Morphological examination demonstrated that OTEO induced cell shrinkage, chromatin condensation, and fragmentation, which are considered typical morphologies of apoptotic cell death. Pro-apoptotic genes (, , and ) were significantly up-regulated, while anti-apoptotic genes ( and ) were significantly down-regulated after treatment with OTEO. In addition, significantly increased gene expression was detected for , , and in AGS cells exposed to OTEO. GC-MS analysis demonstrated that the major compound of OTEO was caryophyllene (25.85%) and α-pinene (11.66%). : This in vitro study demonstrates for the first time that OTEO has potential anti-gastric cancer activity and may induce apoptosis in AGS cells through extrinsic and intrinsic pathways.