cytotoxic effects of chitosan nanoparticles containing satureja khuzistanica essential oil and carvacrol against melanoma cancer

Aim and background: the second leading cause of mortality is cancer in 2019 after heart diseases worldwide, as reported by world health organization (who). essential oils (eos) as natural oil are a mixture of different hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds such as phenol derivatives, aromatic components, terpenoids, and terpenes. the preparation of eo-based nanoformulations is a promising approach for improving the biological effects of eos. methods: in this research, components s. khuzistanica eos was first investigated using gc-ms analysis. the cytotoxic effect of s. khuzistanica eos and carvacrol (its major ingredients) were then investigated against a-375 (human melanoma cancer cell line). after that, chitosan nanoparticles (chinps ) containing s. khuzistanica eo and carvacrol were prepared, and their cytotoxic effect on the cancer cell line was also investigated. results and discussion: the cytotoxic effect of chitosan nanoparticles containing satureja khuzistanica essential oil (ic50 = 78.8 µg/ml) was more potent than other samples on a-375 cell. however, chitosan nanoparticles containing carvacrol indicated a more potent anticancer effect than other samples (ic50 = 43.5 µg/ml). conclusion: as the nanoformulations promising efficacies and green constituents, they are thus good candidates for further research in animal models.