Lavender Volatile Oil: A New Solvent for Propolis Extraction, Chemical Composition, Antioxidant Activity and Cytotoxicity on T98G Glioblastoma Cell Line

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and common brain tumor. The survival of the patient suffering from glioblastoma is not so long. Recently, natural products including propolis have been reported as chemo/radiosensitizers in glioblastoma treatment. Propolis is a resinous complex collected from different parts of medicinal plants. This complex structured bee product can be used after extraction of its biologically active compounds and ethanol is reported to be the best solvent. There is an urgent need to find out new, healthier, and compatible administration tools of propolis intake, especially for cancer patients. The main aim of this study is to find out the solubility of propolis in lavender volatile oil. Total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of new propolis extract was determined. Cytotoxic activity of the obtained extract was also tested on T98G glioblastoma cell linesin vitro. Results showed that the total phenolic content of new propolis extract was determined as 10.16 mg GAE/mL. DPPH radical scavenging activity (SC50) was found as 0.34 +/- 0.012 mg/mL. The cytotoxic effects appeared with concentrations of 100 mu g/ml and more (p<0.01). It could be concluded that lavender essential oil is as efficient solvent as ethanol and might be a new administration tool of propolis, especially for cancer patients.