Investigating the antioxidant and anti-proliferative activity of Foeniculum vulgare seed essential oil on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and A2780 ovarian cancer cell line

Background & aim: Due to the presence of high amounts of compounds with antioxidant and cytotoxic properties in Foeniculum vulgare mill seed essential oil, the aim of this study was to investigate the toxicity of Foeniculum vulgare mill seed essential oil on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and A2780 ovarian cancer cell line and to investigate the antioxidant activity of the essential oil of this plant seed. Materials: The present research is a type of laboratory study that first Foeniculum vulgare mill seed essential oil was extracted by water distillation using Clevenger. Then MCF-7 and A2780 cancer cells were then cultured and propagated and the cytotoxicity of essential oil at concentrations of 10, 25, 50, 100, 125, 250 and 500 μg / ml  was measured for 24 and 48 hours based on colorimetric test (MTT). Also, the antioxidant activity of essential oil in concentrations of 1, 0.7, 0.5, 0.2 and 0.08 mg / ml was evaluated using free radical trapping test (DPPH). In this research, a two-way ANOVA test with a significance level of P<0.05 was used for statistical calculations. Results: The results of this study showed that Foeniculum vulgare mill seed essential oil during 24 and 48 hours in many concentrations used (especially high concentrations) significantly reduced the growth of MCF-7 and A2780 cancer cells compared to the control group. The toxicity of essential oil in 24 hours in all concentrations except 10 μg / ml was higher in MCF-7 cell line and in 48 hours essential oil in all concentrations was more toxic in MCF-7 cell line.The IC50 of the essential oil during 24 and 48 hours for MCF-7 was 94.3 and 61.7 μg/ml, respectively, while the essential oil did not have an IC50 for the A2780 cell line. It was also found that Foeniculum vulgare mill seed essential oil has antioxidant activity in all concentrations used in a concentration-dependent manner. Conclusion: Considering that Foeniculum vulgare mill seed essential oil has high antioxidant and anti-proliferative activity, it can be recommended to researchers in the field of cancer and food industry for anti-tumor and antioxidant research.