in vitro cytotoxic activity of the essential oil extracted from artemisia absinthium

background: essential oils are found to have multiple active components which can show in vitro cytotoxic action against various cancerous cell lines. this study reports the in vitro cytotoxic effects of the essential oil from artemisia absinthium l. (asteraceae) growing wild in iran. methods: water-distilled essential oil of a. absinthium collected from ardabil, north-western iran, was examined for its cytotoxic effects using a modified mtt assay. air-dried aerial parts of a. absinthium was subjected to hydrodistillation using a clevenger-type apparatus. cytotoxicity of the essential oil was measured against hela and human healthy peripheral blood cells. results: the 50% cytotoxic concentrations were found to be 48.59 µg/ml and 5456.07 µg/ml for hela cells and human lymphocytes, respectively. the volatile oil displayed good cytotoxic action against the human tumor cell line. conclusion: the ic50 shows that cytotoxicity of the oil against human tumor cell line is much higher than that required for healthy human cells. these results indicate low adverse effects for this oil. the findings of this study necessitate the need for further consideration of this essential oil in anti-neoplastic chemotherapy.