Inhibition of DNA synthesis by carvacrol in mouse myoblast cells bearing a human N-RAS oncogene.

Monoterpenes are dietary components found in the essential oils of a wide variety of plants. A number of these monoterpenes have antitumor activity. We have investigated the effects of carvacrol obtained by fractional distillation of Origanum onites L. essential oil, on DNA synthesis of N-ras transformed myoblast cells, CO25. Incubation of the cells with different doses of carvacrol prevented DNA synthesis in the growth medium and ras-activating medium, which contains dexamethasone. This result demonstrates that carvacrol inhibits growth of myoblast cells even after activation of mutated N-ras oncogene, suggesting the possibility that carvacrol may find application in cancer therapy.