ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Phirdaous Abbas1 , Yumi Zuhanis Has-Yun Hashim1,2, Azura Amid1, Hamzah Mohd Salleh1,2, Parveen Jamal1 and Irwandi Jaswir1
1Bioprocess and Molecular Engineering Research Unit, Department of Biotechnology
Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, P.O Box
10, 50728, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), International Islamic, University Malaysia, P.O Box 10, 50728, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2014;8(Spl. Edn. 1):871-874
© The Author(s). 2014
Received: 08/01/2014 | Accepted: 24/03/2014 | Published: 31/05/2014
Abstract

Agarwood or Gaharu by definition is the resin impregnated heartwood that produces unique aromatic scent when burnt. Apart from religious rituals and perfumes, agarwood has also been used as traditional medicines leading to the interest of this study which is to screen for anti-cancer properties. In this study, agarwood water distillate (hydrosol) obtained from distillation of agarwood (resin) were screened against MCF-7 cells, which are commonly used as in vitro model for breast cancer and VERO cells (normal cells). Distillate samples were collected, diluted  and directly subjected to three anti-cancer screening assays (cell attachment assay, cell viability assay and sulforhodamine B  assay).  It was found  that agarwood distillate possesses anti-cancer activity and exerts no significant effects on normal cells. This warrants further investigation with potential development of alternative remedy against cancer while adding more value to the agarwood industry.

Keywords

Agarwood, Gaharu, Distillate, Hydrosol, Anti-cancer, Cell culture

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© The Author(s) 2014. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.