Antiproliferative Activities of Chemical Constituents Isolated from Thymus praecox subsp. grossheimii (Ronniger) Jalas

Thymus praecox subsp. grossheimii (Ronniger) Jalas is (TPGJ) an aromatic and medicinal plant used as folk medicine and exhibits a variety of biological activities. Aerial part of plant material was boiled in water then extracted with hexane and ethyl acetate sequentially. Flash column chromatography (Sephadex LH-20) and HPLC were used for ethy acetate extract to isolate rosmarinic acid (1), apigenin 7-O-glucoside (2), chrysoeriol (3), apigenin (4), naringenin (5 ), eriodictiol (6), luteolin (7) and globoidnan A (8). The structures of isolated compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic techniques basically 1D, 2D-NMR and LC-TOF/MS/MS. Antiproliferative activity, cytotoxicity of compounds and extract were investigated in vitro on C6 (rat brain tumor), HeLa (human cervix carcinoma), HT29 (human colon carcinoma) and Vero (African green monkey kidney epithelium) cells lines by using BrdU cell proliferation ELISA and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assays. Extract and some compounds exhibited significant antiproliferative effects against various cancerous cell lines.