Invitro evaluation of the anti-proliferative activities of the wood essential oils of three Cedrus species against K562 human chronic myelogenous leukaemia cells

There are four kinds of Cedar: Cedrus libani naturally occurring in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, Cedrus atlantica in Morocco and Algeria, Cedrus brevefolia in Cyprus Island and Cedrus deodara which is distributed in Himalayan Mountains. Wood essential oils obtained from C. libani, C. atlantica and C. deodara were tested for the inhibition of K562 cell proliferation and for the induction of erythroid differentiation. The wood essential oils of C. libani, C. atlantica and C. deodara inhibited the proliferation of the K562 cell line exhibiting IC50 values 23.38±1.7, 59.37±2.6 and 37.09±1.4μgmL-1, respectively. Meanwhile, C. libani wood oils induced a percentage of erythroid differentiation of 15±2% at concentration 5μgmL-1. Cedrus deodara wood oil indicated a percentage of erythroid differentiation of 20±2% at concentration 25μgmL-1 and C. atlantica wood oils showed a percentage of erythroid differentiation of 121.8% at concentration 10μgmL-1. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.