Abstract :
Many medicinal herbs are widely used in traditional folk medicine in most countries of the world, including Jordan, to treat many human diseases including microbial infections, diabetes and cancer. This study was conducted to evaluate the anti-cancer and antibacterial effects of essential oil (EO) of Varthemia Iphionoides, as well as the synergistic effect of EO and biosynthesiszed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) against many cancer lines including human breast cancer, leukemia, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer. The chemical composition of V. iphionoides essential oil was analyzed using GC/MS. Twenty-two compounds were identified representing 96.1% of the V. iphionoides EO. The anticancer effect of EO from V. Iphionoides, as well as its synergistic effect with AgNPs, were evaluated using 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) for all mentioned cell lines, in which human periodontal ligament fibroblasts (PDL) was used for verification of selectivity. It is noted that the oil has anti-proliferative activity against many types of cancer cells. The study revealed that the combination of essential oil and AgNPs shows a synergistic, antiproliferative effect on all cancer cell lines at a low concentration whereas when they are used individually, the effect is only shown when using a high concentration. EO of Varthemia Iphionoides has clearly demonstrated its effectiveness on pancreatic cancer cells compared to doxorubicin and with a high selectivity rate on synergy with AgNPs. Regarding antibacterial assays using the well diffusion methods, EO of Verthemia Iphionides was active against all five-tested bacteria, with inhibition zone ranged between 15 mm and 26.5 mm. The results of MIC for tested bacteria were between 50 and 370 µg/mL. The best synergistic capacity resulted from combination of AgNPs and EO of Verthemia Iphionides was against S. aureus, Therefore, synergistic studies can be novel strategic plan by furnishing an interesting stage in the future for this kind of research.
