Anticancer and antibacterial activities of cinnamon

Abstract

Cinnamon is an evergreen tree that contains several active components such as essential oils (cinnamic aldehyde and cinnamyl aldehyde), tannins, mucus, and carbohydrate, and used as antiemetic, antidiarrheal, antiflatulent, stimulant. Cinnamon contains so many properties that can be helpful in treating various diseases; hence it was interesting to study the anticancer and antibacterial activities of cinnamon bark solvent (ethanol, methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate) extracts. We have found that cinnamon bark extracts have shown strong antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The methanol and acetone extracts of cinnamon have shown anticancer activity at a concentration 250 μg/ml against the MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. The ethyl acetate extract of cinnamon showed an activity at a concentration of 125 μg/ml, and ethanol extract of cinnamon did not show any activity against the MCF-7 cells. We also observed immunostimulation and immunosuppressive activities in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Interestingly, we have found anticancer and immunomodulatory activities in different cinnamon extracts. We have performed limited experiments hence to confirm these activities, it is important to carry out more experiments.