Study on the effects of Matricaria chamomilla on 7, 12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene and croton oil induced skin tumorigenesis in the mice

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer incidence is one of the human problems and in order to understand its mechanistic aspects several studies have been performed. There are various studies on effects of medicinal plants on caricinogenesis.Objective: In this study we evaluated the effects of Matricaria chamomilla gel extract on skin cancer due to DMBA and croton oil.Materials and methods: Eighty female Albino Swiss mice were divided into 4 groups of 20 in each group. The back of the mice were shaved. After 24 hours, the animals of group 1 received dimethylbenz(a)anthracene and croton oil as control and groups 2, 3 and 4 Matricaria chamomilla 2%, 3% and 4% gel's once daily for 15 days respectively. Nine hours after application of the final dose, the mice of all groups were initiated by a single dose of DMBA (60g/100l acetone/mouse). After 7 days, animals were promoted topically by croton oil (1mg/200l acetone/mouse) twice weekly for period of 32 weeks. Results: At the end of the 10th week the first tumors were observed in the group of animals receiving DMBA and promoted with croton oil.However, Matricaria chamomilla gel's receiving animals, the tumors occurred at week 13th in compared with the control group (DMBA+Croton oil), both in number and percentage of tumor incidence significantly were less in the group receiving 4% of Matricaria chamomilla gel at various intervals of times. Discussion: The results obtained from this study showed that as compare to control group, chamomile gel showed greater inhibition of skin tumors. Overall, our study shows that dimethylbenz(a)anthracene is responsible for mouse skin carcinogenesis. The role of Matricaria chamomilla gel's in inhibition of mouse skin tumors may be due to its potential capabilities in reducing oxidative stress and DNA damage.