干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The essential oil of Tanacetum gracile (Accession no. AT-01 termed AT-01 in the manuscript), a cold desert alpine highly aromatic herb, has 40 constituents including lavendulol (21.5%), lavendulol acetate (1.7%), alpha-pinene (11.2%),1,8-cineole (15.2%), cis-beta-ocimene (6.9%), borneol (6.1%), limonene (5.1%) and chamazulene (3.7%). AT-01 was evaluated for its anticancer activity. It inhibited HL-60 cell proliferation with an IC(50) of 27 mu g/mL. Furthermore, AT-01 induced apoptosis in human leukemia HL-60 cells as measured by several biological end points. AT-01 induced apoptotic body formation, enhanced annexinV-FITC binding of the cells, increased sub-G(0) DNA fraction, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Delta psi(mt)) and release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, activated caspase-9 as well as caspase-3, and increased cleavage of PARP in HL-60 cells. Thus, AT-01 induced apoptosis through the mitochondrial dependant pathway in HL-60 cells.