ABSTRACT
Farnesol, a nonsteroid isoprenoid intermediate formed from mevalonate, is found in orange-peel oil and lemon-grass oil. In mammalian cells, farnesol is metabolized to farnesal, farnesoic acid, and prenyldicarboxylic acids (Bostedor et al.,
1997). Isoprenoids, such as farnesol, are involved in cell-signaling transduction, as its phosphorylated form, farnesyl
pyrophosphate, is needed for protein prenylation (Gelb,1997). Terpenoids, such as farnesol, with hydroxyl groups appear more active than terpene hydrocarbons by inhibiting MIA ZpaCa2 pancreatic-tumor cells (Burke et al.,
1997). Farnesol was reported to inhibit the proliferation of some cell lines and induce apoptosis in a
number of tumor-derived cell lines (Burke et al.,
1997; Yasugi et al.,1994). Rioja et al. (2000) showed farnesol preferentially inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis of leukemic cells without affecting normal, nontransformed cell lines.
