Abstract In this study, sahandone (1) and a new diterpenoid named sahandol II (2) were isolated from the roots of Salvia chloroleuca Rech. f. & Aellen, Lamiaceae. The absolute configurations of compounds 1 and 2 were assigned by comparison of experimental electronic circular dichroism spectra and comparing with published data. Cytotoxic and apoptotic evaluation of the isolated compounds and the methanol crude extract and its subfractions including petroleum ether, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous fraction on two human prostate cancer cell lines and a breast cancer cell lines, showed that non-polar and semi-polar subfractions had the potent cytotoxic effect on PC3 cells with the IC50 values of 24.19, 33.59, and 47.15 µg/ml, respectively. Sub-G1 peak in flow cytometry histogram of cells treated with petroleum ether, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate subfractions showed the induction of apoptosis. Change in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase were observed.

Anti-proliferative properties have been reported for certain species of the genus Artemisia.In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of n-hexane, CH2Cl2, EtOAc, n-BuOH and H2O fractions obtained from a crude methanol extract of A. armeniaca on two myeloid cell lines, apoptosis-proficient HL60 cells and apoptosis-resistant K562 cells; in addition, J774 cells were used as a control. Among the solvent fractions of A. armeniaca, the CH2Cl2 fraction was found to have the largest anti-proliferative effect on cancer cells. The IC50 values obtained using an MTS assay for the CH2Cl2 fraction were 75 and 130 µg/ml for HL-60 cells and K562, respectively. The control cells were not significantly affected by this fraction. A flow cytometry histogram of cells treated with the CH2Cl2 fraction of A. armeniacarevealed a sub-G1 peak. DNA fragmentation, increased protein levels of Bax and cleavage of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) protein confirmed the induction of apoptosis in cells after a 48-h exposure to the CH2Cl2 fraction. Our results corroborate the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of the CH2Cl2 fraction of A. armeniaca on K562 and HL-60 cancer cell lines.