Abstract
Studies show the potentiation of chemotherapeutic drugs by essential oils, which is very important for cancer treatment and may allow the use of lower doses of toxic agents. In this chapter, the antitumor properties of essential oils are discussed, while focusing on synergy between essential oils and other cancer treatments and chemotherapeutic interactions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahn KJ, Lee CK, Choi EK, Griffin R, Song CW, Park HJ (2003) Cytotoxicity of perillyl alcohol against cancer cells is potentiated by hyperthermia. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 57(3):813–819
Banerjee S, Kaseb AO, Wang Z, Kong D, Mohammad M, Padhye S, Sarkar FH, Mohammad RM (2009) Antitumor activity of gemcitabine and oxaliplatin is augmented by thymoquinone in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Res 69(13):5575–5583
Bao F, Qiu J, Zhang H (2012) Potential role of b-elemene on histone H1 in the H22 ascites hepatoma cell line. Mol Med Report 6:185–190
Carnesecchi S, Schneider Y, Ceraline J, Duranton B, Gosse F, Seiler N et al (2001) Geraniol, a component of plant essential oils, inhibits growth and polyamine biosynthesis in human colon cancer cells. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 298:197–200
Clarke J, Mullin G (2008) A review of complementary and alternative approaches to immunomodulation. Nutr Clin Pract 23:49–62
Dornish JM, Pettersen EO, Oftebro R (1988) Synergistic cell inactivation of human NHIK 3025 cells by cinnamaldehyde in combination with cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II). Cancer Res 48(4):938–942
Effenberger-Neidnicht K, Schobert R (2011) Combinatorial effects of thymoquinone on the anti-cancer activity of doxorubicin. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 67(4):867–874
Eid SY, El-Readi MZ, Wink M (2012) Synergism of three-drug combinations of sanguinarine and other plant secondary metabolites with digitonin and doxorubicin in multi-drug resistant cancer cells. Phytomedicine 19(14):1288–1297
Epplen R, Stöckle M, Engelmann U, Heidenreich A, Ohlmann CH (2011) Differential effects of ibandronate, docetaxel and farnesol treatment alone and in combination on the growth of prostate cancer cell lines. Acta Oncol 50(1):127–133
Ghosh R, Ganapathy M, Alworth WL, Chan DC, Kumar AP (2009) Combination of 2-methoxyestradiol (2-ME2) and eugenol for apoptosis induction synergistically in androgen independent prostate cancer cells. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 113(1–2):25–35
Guenther E (1950) In the essential oil. In, vol. IV. D Van Nostrand, New York
Hemaiswarya S, Doble M (2013) Combination of phenylpropanoids with 5-fluorouracil as anti-cancer agents against human cervical cancer (HeLa) cell line. Phytomedicine 20(2):151–158
Huang CS, Lyu SC, Hu ML (2012) Synergistic effects of the combination of b-ionone and sorafenib on metastasis of human hepatoma SK-Hep-1 cells. Invest New Drugs 30(4):1449–1459
Hussain A, Brahmbhatt K, Priyani A, Ahmed M, Rizvi TA, Sharma C (2011) Eugenol enhances the chemotherapeutic potential of gemcitabine and induces anticarcinogenic and anti-inflammatory activity in human cervical cancer cells. Cancer Biother Radiopharm 26(5):519–527
Hussain A, Priyani A, Sadrieh L, Brahmbhatt K, Ahmed M, Sharma C (2012) Concurrent sulforaphane and eugenol induces differential effects on human cervical cancer cells. Integr Cancer Ther 11(2):154–165
Jafri SH, Glass J, Shi R, Zhang S, Prince M, Kleiner-Hancock H (2010) Thymoquinone and cisplatin as a therapeutic combination in lung cancer: in vitro and in vivo. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 29:87
Kim SH, Park EJ, Lee CR, Chun JN, Cho NH, Kim IG, Lee S, Kim TW, Park HH, So I, Jeon JH (2012) Geraniol induces cooperative interaction of apoptosis and autophagy to elicit cell death in PC-3 prostate cancer cells. Int J Oncol 40(5):1683–1690
Kong Y; Zhang JW (2006) Experimental study on rat model of endometriosis treated with tamoxifen and Rhizoma curcumae oil. Sichuan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban 37(4):596–598
Korkina LG, De Luca C, Kostyuk VA, Pastore S (2009) Plant polyphenols and tumors: from mechanisms to therapies, prevention, and protection against toxicity of anti-cancer treatments. Curr Med Chem 16:3943–3965
Lai PK, Roy J (2004) Antimicrobial and chemopreventive properties of herbs and spices. Curr Med Chem 11:1451–1460
Li QQ, Wang G, Reed E, Huang L, Cuff CF (2010) Evaluation of cisplatin in combination with b-elemene as a regimen for prostate cancer chemotherapy. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol 107(5):868–876
Liu RR, Gariboldi MB, Molteni R, Monti E (2008) Linalol, a plant-derived monoterpene alcohol, reverses doxorubicin resistance in human breast adenocarcinoma cells. Oncol Rep 20(3):625–630
Liu J, Zhang Z, Gao J, Xie J, Yang L, Hu S (2011) Downregulation effects of beta-elemene on the levels of plasma endotoxin, serum TNF-alpha, and hepatic CD14 expression in rats with liver fibrosis. Front Med 5:101–105
M'Barek LA, Mouse HA, Jaâfari A, Aboufatima R, Benharref A, Kamal M, Bénard J, El Abbadi N, Bensalah M, Gamouh A, Chait A, Dalal A Zyad, A (2007) Cytotoxic effect of essential oil of thyme (Thymus broussonettii) on the IGR-OV1 tumor cells resistant to chemotherapy. Braz J Med Biol Res 40(11):1537–1544
Milrot E, Jackman A, Flescher E, Gonen P, Kelson I, Keisari Y, Sherman L (2013) Enhanced killing of cervical cancer cells by combinations of methyl jasmonate with cisplatin, X or alpha radiation. Invest New Drugs 31(2):333–344
Mo H, Elson CE (2004) Studies of the isoprenoid-mediated inhibition of mevalonate synthesis applied to cancer chemotherapy and chemoprevention. Exp Biol Med 229:567–585
Nessa MU, Beale P, Chan C, Yu JQ, Huq F (2011) Synergism from combinations of cisplatin and oxaliplatin with quercetin and thymoquinone in human ovarian tumour models. Anticancer Res 31(11):3789–3797
Prabuseenivasan S, Jayakumar M, Ignacimuthu S (2006) In vitro antibacterial activity of some plant essential oils. BMC Complementary Altern Med 6:39
Samaila D, Toy BJ, Wang RC, Elegbede JA (2004) Monoterpenes enhanced the sensitivity of head and neck cancer cells to radiation treatment in vitro. Anticancer Res 24(5A):3089–3095
Vieira A, Heidor R, Cardozo MT, Scolastici C, Purgatto E, Shiga TM, L.F. Barbisan LF, Ong TP,Moreno, FS (2011) Efficacy of geraniol but not of b-ionone or their combination for the chemoprevention of rat colon carcinogenesis. Braz J Med Biol Res 44(6):538–545
Wang B, Peng XX, Sun R, Li J, Zhan XR, Wu LJ, Wang SL, Xie T (2012) Systematic review of b-elemene injection as adjunctive treatment for lung cancer. Chin J Integr Med 18:813–823
Yeruva L, Pierre KJ, Elegbede A, Wang RC, Carper SW (2007) Perillyl alcohol and perillic acid induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in non small cell lung cancer cells. Cancer Lett 257(2):216–226
Yeruva L, Hall C, Elegbede JA, Carper SW (2010) Perillyl alcohol and methyl jasmonate sensitize cancer cells to cisplatin. Anticancer Drugs 21(1):1–9
Zhang B, Zhang X, Tang B, Zheng P, Zhang Y (2012) Investigation of elemene-induced reversal of tamoxifen resistance in MCF-7 cells through oestrogen receptora (ERa) re-expression. Breast Cancer Res Treat 136:399–406
Zou B, Li QQ, Zhao J, Li JM, Cuff CF, Reed E (2013) b-Elemene and taxanes synergistically induce cytotoxicity and inhibit proliferation in ovarian cancer and other tumor cells. Anticancer Res 33(3):929–940
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico) and CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Peres, R., Foot Gomes de Moura, C., Pidone Ribeiro, F., Ribeiro, D. (2015). Antitumor Essential Oils: Synergy and Chemotherapeutic Interactions. In: de Sousa, D. (eds) Bioactive Essential Oils and Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19144-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19144-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19143-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19144-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)