The five Ferulago species inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis of A549, MCF-7, PC3 and SW480 cancer cells in vitro.

In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic and apoptotic activities of ethanolic extracts prepared from the roots of 5 Ferulago species [ F. humilis Boiss., F. macrosciadia Boiss. & Balansa, F. sandrasica Peşmen & Quézel, F. silaifolia (Boiss.) Boiss., F. trojana Akalın & Pimenov] on various human cancer cell lines. The cytotoxicity analyses against human lung (A549), breast (MCF-7), prostate (PC3) and colon (SW480) cancer cell lines were determined by MTT test; while the apoptotic effect was evaluated by Annexin V binding assay. All studied extracts showed concentration-dependent cytotoxic activity with an IC 50 value ranging from 0.416 to 5.336 mg/mL. The studied Ferulago species significantly induced apoptosis of cancer cells, while F. macrosciadia had the highest apoptotic activity on MCF-7 cells with 21.79 ± 1.63% apoptotic cell population ( p  < 0.0001). In addition, felamedin and prantschimgin content of the extracts, which are common coumarins in Ferulago species, were evaluated by HPLC. According to HPLC analysis, the highest amount of felamedin content was found in F. trojana , while the highest content of prantschimgin was found in F. sandrasica among the studied Ferulago species. This preliminary research has revealed that the studied Ferulago species have promising effects on various cancer cell lines. Further studies are planned to determine the compounds responsible for the effect and underlying mechanism.