The aim of this research was to evaluate the essential oil of Cymbopogon schoenanthus (L.) Spreng. (C. schoenanthus) from Burkina Faso in terms of cytotoxic activity against LNCaP cells, derived from prostate cancer, and HeLa cells, derived from cervical cancer. Antioxidant activities were evaluated in vitro. Essential oil (EO) was extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS. Thirty-seven compounds were identified, the major compounds being piperitone (49.9%), δ-2-carene (24.02%), elemol (5.79%) and limonene (4.31%). EO exhibited a poor antioxidant activity, as shown by the inhibition of DPPH radicals (IC50 = 1730 ± 80 µg/mL) and ABTS+. (IC50 = 2890 ± 26.9 µg/mL). Conversely, EO decreased the proliferation of LNCaP and HeLa cells with respective IC50 values of 135.53 ± 5.27 µg/mL and 146.17 ± 11 µg/mL. EO also prevented LNCaP cell migration and led to the arrest of their cell cycle in the G2/M phase. Altogether, this work points out for the first time that EO of C. schoenanthus from Burkina Faso could be an effective natural anticancer agent.
Keywords: Cymbopogon schoenanthus; antimigratory; antioxidant; cancer; cell cycle; cytotoxic; essential oil.