Modeling of antiproliferative effects of Salvia officinalis L. essential oil optimized using Box–Behnken design

The objectives of this work were to optimize hydro-distillation extraction of Salvia officinalis L. essential oil (SoEO) and to evaluate the in vitro scavenging capacity of the free radicals DPPH·, NO·, ABTS+, and the ability to reduce Fe3+. The optimization of SoEO extraction by hydro-distillation was carried out using the response-surface methodology by Box–Behnken. The cytotoxicity and anti-proliferative capacities were evaluated by measuring cell viability and then modeled. Two human tumor cell lines: MCF-7 and HeLa were involved. The obtained optimal extraction yield was Y = 1.85 g/100 g d.b. The main identified fractions were camphene (23.7%), α-thujone (19.62%), 1,8-cineole (10.6%), viridiflorol (5.9%), borneol (5.72%), β-thujone (5.4%) and caryophyllene (3.83%). Also, SoEO was mostly able to scavenge DPPH· free radical, ABTS+ radical and hydrogen peroxide in an amount dependent manner (IC50 = 0.97, 0.279 and 0.05 mg/mL, respectively). All treated cell lines showed a significant reduction in cell viability in response to the increasing of oil concentration. The cytotoxicity activity against both tumor cell lines MCF-7 and HeLa was considerably important with IC50 = 3.125 and 8.920 μg/mL, respectively. The present work provides a preliminary platform for further investigation of the possible mechanism of S. officinalis essential oils and their individual compounds in cytotoxic and antitumor activities.