The Short-Term Effects of Pistacia Lentiscus Oil and Sesame Oil on Liver and Kidney Pathology of Rats and Human Cancer Cell Lines

Vegetable oils recently have been evaluated in many tissues. Pistacia lentiscus (mastic) of the Anacardiaceae family and Sesamum indicum (sesame) of the Pedaliaceae fam- ily are conventionally used in the management of gastrointestinal, lung, and skin illnesses. This assay attempts to determine if the oral usage of mastic and sesame oils has any short- term toxic effects in vivo on the rat and evaluate the human anticancer effect in vitro. Ma- terials and

Twenty-one male Sprague-Dewley rats were assigned to three groups randomly: (A) control, (B) mastic oil (400 mg/kg), and (C) sesame oil (2cc/kg). The effects of these oils were investigated by determining histopathological and stereological parame- ters after six days, and the anticancer effects were evaluated on SW48, HepG2 human cell lines.

A mild chronic interstitial inflammation was seen in just one kidney of mas- tic oil group (B) and the other ones were normal. In the sesame oil group (C), mild chronic interstitial inflammation was seen in six kidneys. In the liver samples of both groups, there were no specific pathological findings. Different concentrations of mastic oil (0.1%-5%) re- duced the cell viability of SW48, HepG2, HEK293t, and human fat cells.

Mastic and sesame oils have some side-effects on the kidney and might not be safe at high doses in rats. Sesame oil did not have any toxic effect on HepG2 and HEK293t human cancer cells. Mastic oil treatment has inhibited specific SW48 cells, so this oil seems to be a good adju- vant to chemotherapy in colon treatments.