In-vitro Antioxidant, Antidiabetic, Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Activities of Essential Oil extracted from Flowers of Illicium verum L.

Illicium verum is a small native evergreen tree of northeast Vietnam, India and southwest China. It is the flower of a medium-sized tree and is also known as star anise belongs to the family of Schisandraceae that grows in North America, Atlantic region, and tropical and subtropical zones of Asia. This study investigated the in vitro cytotoxic effects of essential oil obtained from the flowers of Illicium verum is also known as star anise. Steam distillation method was used to extract oil from the flowers of Illicium verum. Antioxidant activities such as DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), and ferric reducing power assays were assessed followed by total phenolic contents was estimated by folin-ciocalteau reagent method. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was used to find out volatile and semi-volatile compounds of essential oil extracted from Illicium verum. Anti-proliferative effect was studied by MTT assay method using MCF 7 and HepG 2 cancer cell lines. The maximum HepG 2 cell death was 25.73 ±0.24 % at 100µg/mL concentration and the IC50 was 194.32±0.24% at 100µg/mL concentration. The maximum MCF 7 cell death was 32.64±0.32% at 100µg/mL concentration and the IC50 was 153.18 ± 0.32% at 100µg/mL concentration.