Purpose: Chemotherapy is an important alternative to surgery and radiation to treat successfully for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Although current anticancer drugs are effective and useful, it is important to develop new drugs for improving the efficiency of the chemotherapies against OSCC cell lines. Herbs products contain a variety of chemical compounds that have potent biological effects, including anticancer activity. In this report, we found two herbs products from more than 400 bio-active herbs products exhibited potential anticancer activity against the OSCC cell lines.

Methods: The antiproliferative effects and invasive property were confirmed by MTT assay, soft agar colony formation assay, and cell adhesion assay ECM array To further investigate the molecular mechanism of the observed growth-suppressing effects of these herbs products, we conducted Terminal Deoxyuridine Nick-end Labeling (TUNEL) and caspase activities assays

Results: h201 and h207 inhibits the monolayer and anchorage independent growth in OSCC cell, while but has no effect on OSCC cells adhesion to ECM. The possible mechanism of these herbs products’s action could be to induce apoptotic cell death by controlling mitochondrial permeability.

Conclusions: We strongly assumed that these herbs products contain components possessing anticancer activity. Further studies are in progress to identify the active component of the extracts and the precise molecular mechanism by which the extracts inhibit the growth of OSCC cell (Patent Pending).

Conflict of interest: None declared.