Comparative Study on Sources of Vetiver Extracts (Vetiveria zizanioides L.) against HeLa Cells Growth Using Mitotic Index (MI) Analysis

Vertiveria zizanioides extract has the potential of anticancer activity. The extracts usually can be obtained from agricultural produced crude oil and commercialized essential oil, but the effectiveness is still unknown. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of vetiver crude oil and essential oil as an anticancer agent. This study is conducted by applying these extracts against HeLa cell lines using mitotic index (MI) analysis. Mitotic index is a method to calculate the rate of cell proliferation based on the total number of cells undergoing mitosis in the observed sample. The result shows that the average MI percentages of the control, vetiver crude oil, and vetiver essential oil samples were 5.57 %, 1.70 %, and 3.26 %, respectively. It shows that vetiver crude oil from agricultural producers was more effective in inhibiting the growth of HeLa cells than commercialized vetiver essential oil. The lower MI indicates higher antimitotic activity. Further research is still needed to determine the components of vetiver crude oil that have potential as an anticancer.