Chemical composition, anticancer activities and related mechanisms of the essential oil from Alpinia coriandriodora rhizome

Alpinia coriandriodora is widely cultivated as a medicinal and edible Zingiberaceae plant in Guangxi, China. Since essential oils from Zingiberaceae plants can be used as a potential source of anticancer drugs, this study was designed to identify the chemical composition of A. coriandriodora rhizome essential oil (EO) and firstly elucidate its anticancer activities and related mechanisms. The GC-FID/MS results indicated that the most predominant component of EO was (E)-2-decenal (56.3%). Based on the MTT results, EO exhibited comparable cytotoxicity to A549 cells and lower cytotoxicity to non-cancerous cells compared with the positive control (elemene injection). For related mechanism studies, EO inhibited the A549 cells proliferation, resulting from inducing cell cycle arrest at G1 phase via downregulation of cyclin E2-CDK2 and cyclin D3-CDK4/CDK6 complexes and upregulation of p21. Meanwhile, it induced the apoptosis through mitochondrial pathway with the successive enhancement in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, Δψm decline, cyt c release, activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, and PARP cleavage. Moreover, it inhibited the migration and invasion ability of A549 cells via downregulation of MMP-2 and N-cadherin, as well as upregulation of E-cadherin. Hence, EO has outstanding anticancer properties in vitro, and this fact encourages further studies using in vivo models.