## 3 Results and Discussion
[55], both these ratios (PUFA/SFA and n6/n3) are good indicators for the nutritional quality of a food product, however even in the case of pumpkin and luffa oils which did not met this specific criterion, there are several beneficial health effects evidenced that allow us to suggest their incorporation in the human diet. Moreover, it seems that the extraction with cold pressing may improve the nutritional value of seed oils by increasing the beneficial fatty acids content, such as \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid in the case of linseed and purslane seed oil, thus improving the nutritional value and the bioactive properties of the obtained oils [58]. The cytotoxic effects of the studied oils are described in Table 2. None of the tested oils were effective against all the tested tumor cell lines, while linseed oil 1, luffa oil, and cucurbit showed a slight toxicity against the non-tumor porcine liver primary culture (PLP2) cell line. Moreover, all the tested oils (except for linseed oil 1 and 2) showed efficacy against cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cell lines, especially luffa oil which recorded the lowest GI\({}_{50}\) values (215 ug/mL), followed by pumpkin oil, linseed oil 1, and purslane oil in decreasing order of effectiveness. Similarly, luffa oil was the most efficient against non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H460) cell line, followed by linseed oil 1, whereas none of the tested oils were effective against hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) and breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines. The anticancer activities of _Luffa_ sp. aerial parts against various types of cancer have been previously reported (e.g., human neuronal glioblastoma cells (U343) and human lung cancer cells (A549) [59], human lung cancer cell line (NCI-H460) [60], Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) [61], Dalton's lymphoma ascites (DLA) [62]); however, to the best of our knowledge there are no reports regarding the cytotoxic effects of luffa seed oil against cancer cell lines and the results of our study could be useful for the exploitation of this underutilized species. Linseed is also well known for its anticancer activities, especially against hormone related cancers such as breast, prostate, and colon cancer, due to its high content in \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid and polyphenols which reduce human estrogen receptor-positive tumors and inhibit cancer cells proliferation [63; 64; 65]. Therefore, our results are in agreement with those of literature reports, although it seems that bioactive properties of oils are related to the extraction protocol since not all the tested oils of this study presented similar cytotoxic effects. Regarding pumpkin seeds and seed oil, both in vitro and in vivo studies have reported the beneficial effects against hyperplastic and cancer cells, as in the case of prostate hyperplasia [66], colon cancer [67], or cervical carcinoma [68]. According to [PERSON] and [PERSON] [69] the anticancer effects of pumpkin seed oil could be attributed to antioxidant vitamins which inhibit free radicals production, while [PERSON] et al. [70] associated toxic effects against melanoma cells to moschatin, a ribosome inactivating protein. In a recent study conducted by [PERSON] et al. [71], cucurbitacin obtained from seeds exhibited antiproliferative effects against non-small cell lung cancer cells, while [PERSON] et al. [72] reported that bioactive properties of seed oil could be due to high content not only of polyunsaturated fatty acids, but also to tocopherols and phytosterols. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [73] reported significant inhibitory effects of _Cucurbita moschatin_ and _C. pepo_ seed oils against liver, colon, and breast cancer, and suggested potential uses in controlling tumor proliferation.