Short Communication: Antimicrobial of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus L.) volatile oil and cytotoxic effects against L20B and MCF-7cell lines
Authors: MOHAMMED HASAN ZAINAB YASEEN , FARHAN AL-HALBOSIY MOHAMMAD MAHMOUD , AL-LIHAIBI RAGHAD K. , AL-NAUIMI EBTEHAL H. 
Published: November 2022

Abstract. Hasan ZYM, Al-Halbosiy MMF, Al-Lihaibi RK, Al-Nauimi EH. 2022. Short Communication: Antimicrobial of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus L.) volatile oil and cytotoxic effects against L20B and MCF-7cell lines. Biodiversitas 23: 5298-5301. Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus L.) has been used in different countries in folk remedies for coughs, malaria, pneumonia, and others for many years. The development of bacterial resistance to available antibiotics has obligated finding for new agents to serve as potent antibacterial drugs. The present investigation deals with the effect of volatile lemongrass oil cultivated in Iraq, on different bacterial species and evaluates the cytotoxic activity of the extracted oil on L20B and MCF-7cell cancer cell lines. The plant samples were collected from the college of science /Baghdad University /scientific garden and classified as C. citratus L. by the plant herbarium at the same college. The volatile plant oil was extracted from fresh leaves at the laboratory of the plant biotechnology department of Biotechnology Research Center at Al-Nahrain university/Iraq. With the aid of the Clevenger apparatus, a hydro-distillation method was employed to quantify the lemon grass’s volatile oil. The extracted essential oil and the plant crud maceration were screened for their antibacterial activity against two Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, and Vibrio cholera) and two Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus) using the well-diffusion method and disc diffusion method. The biological survey also included the cytotoxic effect of oil subjected to the anticancer activity in vitro on two cancer cell lines; L20B mouse cell line that expresses the genes for human cellular receptors for polioviruses, and the second line was the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. As a result of this screening study, it was shown that the plant seemed to be rich in essential oil content. The Iraqi cultivated plant produced 1.5%v/w essential oil. The volatile oil affected both Gram-negative and Gram-positive strains in comparison to the crud plant extract among the selected bacterial cultures, the highest antibacterial activity was recorded against the Gram-positive strain S. aureus by well diffusion method. Besides, the plant oil showed an inhibitory effect on L20B cell line with a percent inhibitory growth rate reaching 47.1% at 1.125 ?l/mL of the oil concentration. While for the other cell line, MCF-7 cell line, the inhibitory growth rate percentage appeared for almost all concentrations in comparison with control after 24 hours, and even at a concentration of 0.3125?l/mL, the inhibitory growth rate percentage reached up to 86%. This study was conducted to high lightened the benefits of this plant as little study had been done for an Iraqi cultivated plant and the results showed the potent biological effects of the plant especially the volatile oil as an antimicrobial and as a potent cancer inhibitory agent.