Cytotoxic and Apoptotic Effects of Extracts of Artemisia ciniformis on K562 and HL-60 Cell Lines

Increase in prevalence of cancer cases has been associated with the expansion of industrial, chemical and radioactive pollutants, also the gap between human being and nature (Colditz and Wei, 2012; Fasinu and Orisakwe, 2013). Despite the progress in the field of medicinal chemistry and development in the synthesis of several new therapeutic compounds, the role of plants and phytochemicals can not be ignored in pharmaceutical sciences (Cerella et al., 2014). Due to the presence of compounds with cytotoxic and anti-tumor activity in some plants and significant efficacy of plant derived compounds in inhibition and treatment of cancer, as well as the amazing diversity of natural compounds in plants, researches to find new phytochemicals and to evaluate their biological effects is essential and a research priority (Tayarani-Najaran et al., 2011; Wegiera et al., 2012; Sehitoglu et al., 2014). Artemisia is a genus belonging to the family Asteraceae Compositae with commonly fragrant species. Some species such as A. dracunculus L. are kitchen plants and used for