Author(s)

William Chi Keung Mak, Sean Walsh

School of Life Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia.

Prunella vulgaris (PV) is a perennial plant which is widely grown around the world. It has been widely used as a medicinal treatment for generations. Previous studies showed extracts from this plant had a wide range of therapeutic efficacy, including anti-tumorous effect. However, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) extracted from it were rarely explored. This paper reports on the characterization of a steam distillation process to extract VOCs in PV and also the anti-tumorous effects of the PV distillate using the tetrazolium-based Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) as the test agent, when the VOCs were used to treat oral squamous cancer cells, SSC154. It was found that most abundant VOCs came out steadily and continuously for as long as the duration of the steam extraction could extend. However, some compounds such as benzaldehyde did show depletion as the distillation process progressed, while some compounds such as caryophyllene oxide was only sparsely found at the beginning of distillation. The PV distillate was mildly effective in its cytotoxicity to cancer cells SCC154, in a dosage dependent manner.

Chinese Herbal Medicine, Steam Distillation, Prunella vulgaris, Xia Ku Cao, Volatile Organic Compounds, GC-MS, Cell Cytotoxicity, Cell Counting Kit-8

Mak, W. and Walsh, S. (2021) The Characterization of Steam Distillation as an Extraction Method to Extract Volatile Compounds from Prunella vulgaris and the Investigation of Their Anti-Tumorous Effect. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 9, 120-142. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2021.98011.