Author(s): Bilal Ahmad Dar, Ali Mohd Lone, Mushtaq A. Qurishi

Abstract: The chemical composition of the essential oil of Nepeta govanianawas determined by GC-FID with relative abundance and relative retention indices (RRI). The GC-FID analysis led to identification of ten compounds accounting for 86.02% of total oil composition. The dominant compounds present were 1, 2, 3, 6-tetramethylbicyclo [2, 2, 2] octa-2, 5-diene (32.35%) followed by geijerene (20.65%) and pregeijerene (6.18%). The oil was screened for cytotoxic activity against a panel of five cancer cell lines viz lung (A-549), breast (MCF-7), pancreas (MiaPaCa-2) and Colon (HCT-116 and Colo-205) using sulforhodamine B assay (SRB). The Nepeta govaniana essential oil exhibited a concentration-dependent as well as cell line-dependent growth inhibition of cancer cells and was found to be most active against the lung (A-549; IC50 of 19.1 ± 0.9 µg/ml) followed by colon (colo-205; IC50 of 21.3±1.1 µg/ml) cancer cell lines.