Cupressus sempervirens L. has known medicinal activities, which are related to the presence of miscellaneous secondary metabolites, involved in patents for pharmaceuticals and/or cosmetics in the market. The aim of this study is to perform a comparative investigation of the main metabolites in the wild, cultivated and callus cultures of C. sempervirens using different treatments and the in vitro production of certain metabolites from C. sempervirens callus cultures in concentrations adequate for use commercially and also to develop a convenient chromatographic method for both the qualitative and quantitative determination of the most beneficial flavonoids (rutin and quercitrin), along with other metabolites (ferruginol, 2-furancarboxaldehyde,5 methyl, pentadecanoic acid, totarol, quinic acid and hinokiol) using HPLC/DAD and GC/MS, respectively.
Leaf extract of the wild plant induced reduction in cell viability of some tested cell lines as: human hepatocellular carcinoma cell (HEPG2), lung carcinoma cell (A549), human Caucasian breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) and especially on human colon cancer cell (HCT116), which was higher than doxorubicin used as a standard. This study is a stepping stone for obtaining natural and renewable bioactive secondary metabolites from C. sempervirens through in vitro callus cultures.