Investigation of the antitumoral activities ofmaslinic acid and oleanolic acid metabolites from olive fruit and their mechanism of action

The increasingly rapid development of resistance to conventional anticancer agents creates the need for new and effective anticancer agents. However, it is quite difficult to develop a new anticancer agent that can selectively inhibit the proliferation of malignant cells with little or no effect on normal cells. For this reason, studies on the development of new chemotherapeutic agents that are likely to have anticancer activity on various types of cancers are still underway. Hence, the present study aims to investigate the cytotoxic, apoptotic, genotoxic and oxidant potentials of maslinic acid and oleanolic acid isolated from olive (Olea europaea L.) fruits. The current results indicate that the characteristic olive compounds display cytotoxic and genotoxic activities but no apoptotic activity mediated by increasing oxidative stress. The evidence from the present study suggests that maslinic and oleanolic acids are biologically active compounds that worth investigating as pure substances with high potentials. Key Words: Olea europaea L., maslinic acid, oleanolic acid, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity.