Objective: To study and determined the active fraction of Uygur medicine Ferula ferulaeoides and its sensitive gastric cancer cell line in vitro

and explore the effect of F. ferulaeoides in inducing the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of gastric cancer cells

in order to provide experimental basis for further studies. Method: The 3- (4

5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-yl)-3

5-di-phenytetrazoliumromide (MTT) method was used to detect the inhibition effects of different extracts (with volatile oil

95% ethanol extract

petroleum ether

chloroform

ethyl acetate

n-butanol

and water fraction) from F. ferulaeoides on 5 kinds of gastric cancer cell lines (AGS

MKN-45

BGC-823

MGC-803 and SGC-7901)

Hoechst33258 fluorescent staining was used to observe the effect of the volatile oil and the chloroform fraction of F. ferulaeoides on the gastric cancer cell lines AGS and SGC-7901

the effects of different extract parts of F. ferulaeoides on the apoptosis of gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 were detected by flow cytometry

the effect of volatile oil and chloroform fraction of F. ferulaeoides on cell cycle arrest of gastric cancer cell lines AGS and SGC-7901 were detected by flow cytometry. Result: Volatile oil

95% ethanol extract and its petroleum ether

chloroform and ethyl acetate fraction on 5 kinds of gastric cancer cells had different proliferation inhibition effects (P<0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. The chloroform fraction had a good sensitivity to the five kinds of gastric cancer cell lines

with the highest sensitivity in gastric cancer cell lines SGS-7901

and the median inhibitory concentration (IC50) was (8.73 ±0.55) mg·L-1

and the volatile oil had a strong inhibitory effect on gastric cancer cell AGS

and IC50 was (7.98 ±2.62) mg·L-1. The n-butanol and water fractions did not show a significant inhibition effect on cell proliferation

the cell nucleus of gastric cancer cell lines AGS and SGC-7901 was stained by Hoechst 33258

and the blue fluorescence was stronger with the increase of drug concentration. The results of flow cytometry showed that different extract parts of F. ferulaeoides induced the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells AGS and SGC-7901 to varying degrees

and the total apoptotic rate was significantly increased with the increase of drug concentration. The results of flow cytometry showed that the AGS cycle of gastric cancer cells significantly changed

the proportion of G0/G1-phase cells increased

while the proportion of S phase cells decreased

the proportion of G2/M phase decreased compared with control group (P<0.05). The cell cycle of SGC-7901 significantly changed too

while the proportion of G0/G1 phase cells was decreased

the proportion of S phase cells increased

and the ratio of G2/M phase (P<0.05)

with significant differences compared with the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: The volatile oil of F. ferulaeoides had a high inhibitory effect on the growth of gastric cancer cell SGC-7901

the chloroform fraction of F. ferulaeoides had a high inhibitory effect on the growth of five kinds of gastric cancer cells

especially for gastric cancer cell SGC-7901

late apoptosis of gastric cancer cells AGS and SGC-7901 was induced by different extract parts of F. ferulaeoides

while early apoptosis of gastric cancer cells AGS was induced by the ethyl acetate fraction of F. ferulaeoides. The cell cycle of gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 was arrested in S phase and G2/M phase. The cell cycle of gastric cancer SGC-7901 was arrested in S phase. The results show that the volatile oil and the chloroform fraction of F. ferulaeoides had a good anti-gastric cancer activity

and provide scientific basis for further studies on the anti-gastric cancer mechanism of F. ferulaeoides in vivo.