Carvacrol is a phenolic monoterpen found in Thyme plant which is used as a source of flavour in food. The aim of this study was to investigate apoptotic effects of carvacrol on H-ras transformed 5RP7 and N-ras transformed CO25 cell lines and possibilities of carvacrol as being a chemoterapeutic drug. The data was shown that carvacrol has cytotoxic effects on both cell lines upon time- and concentrations. ICS0 values were determined 0.04 mg/mL for 5RP7 and 0.1 mg/mL for CO25 cell lines. Depending on the ICS0 values, although carvacrol induced morphological changes on both cell types, mobility of phosphatidilserine localisation analysed by flow cytometry was only detected on 5RP7 cells. Beside, DNA laddering which is the late apoptotic determinant was seen on H-ras transformed cells but not on N-ras transformed cells at concentration ICS0 value and below. These results indicated that H-ras transformed cells are more sensitive to carvacrol than N-ras tranformed cells. This investigation suggests the possibility that carvacrol may find application in cancer therapy as an antineoplastic drug.

Keywords: Carvacrol, Apoptosis, N-ras, H-ras, Cell culture, Cancer