Antiproliferative Activity of Coumarin and Cinnamon Water Extracts on Human Ovarian Cancer Cells

Abstract

Coumarin is one of the important compounds of cinnamon which possess many biological activities such as anticoagulation, antithrombotic, antimicrobial and anti-oxidant activities. This study was performed to demonstrate the presence of coumarin in cinnamon stem bark through chromatographic fractionation and exploring the potential anticancer properties of cinnamon extract on human ovarian epithelial carcinoma cell line A2780. Water and solvent extraction, chromatographic fractionation and isolation were done for dried cinnamon. The structure of the isolated compound 1 was elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Separation and quantification of compound 1 in cinnamon water extracts were carried out by HPLC. Identification of the compound 1 was achieved by comparing retention times and UV spectra with the standard curve. Cytotoxicity analysis was performed using MTT assay in which A2780 cells were exposed to different concentrations of cinnamon water extract and compound 1. Compound 1 was identified as coumarin by its spectroscopic data. Both cinnamon water extracts and coumarin inhibit the proliferation of A2780 cells in vitro with 50% inhibitory concentration values of 9.1 and 0.64 mg/mL, respectively. The results showed coumarin alone manifested higher growth inhibition than cinnamon water extract toward A2780 cells. The smaller inhibitory effect of cinnamon water extract can be attributed to the presence of a lower concentration of coumarin in the cinnamon water extract and anti-proliferative property in cinnamon due to coumarin presence may be owing to the synergistic effect of the other compound in cinnamon.