Cytotoxic activity of Thymus capitatus collected from Hail region in Saudi Arabia with mechanistic study via induction of caspase-dependent apoptosis and S-phase arrest

Thymus capitatus is a plant grows in Mediterranean area and some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. It possesses numerous medicinal values. Its common name Zaatar it belongs to family Lamiaceae leaves stem were collected from Hail region, Then both extracted with ethanol. This study was performed evaluate cytotoxic activity of ethanolic extract details. Doxorubicin used standard the relevant half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values computed for each cell line by 3-(4,5- diemthylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. In addition, further mechanistic carried out using Apoptosis assay explore extract. Both stems extracts screened against HepG2, A-549, HCT-116 MCF-7 cancer lines. found that leaves’ shows high moderate A-549 HepG2 lines, respectively (with IC50 = 13.6 21.5 μg/ml, respectively), while stem’s exerted lines 21.38 μg/ml). Further on cells apoptosis showed resulted arrest S-phase caused through activation caspase-3, p53 Bax, addition down regulation Bcl-2.