Study of cytotoxic properties of Rosa damascena extract in human cervix carcinoma cell line

Cancer is a major health problem worldwide and current therapies for cancer are often limited by short-term efficacy due to drug resistance. There has been much interest in the use of naturally occurring compounds with chemo-preventive and chemotherapeutic properties in the treatment of cancers.Rose is one of the most important groups of ornamental plants which their fruits and flowers are used in a wide variety of foods, nutritional products and different traditional medicines. In this study cytotoxic effect of Rosa damascena extract was evaluated on HeLa cell line. HeLa cells were cultured in DMEM medium and incubated with different concentrations of Rosa damascene (R. damascene) extract. Cell viability was quantitated by MTT assay. Rosa decreased cell viability in malignant cells in a concentration and time dependent manner. The IC50 values against HeLa were determined as 2135, 1540 and 305.1 µg.ml-1 after 24, 48 and 72h, respectively. It might be concluded that R. damascena could cause cell death in HeLa cells which could be also considered as a promising chemotherapeutic agent in cancer treatment in future.