Senkyunolide A is a phthalide originally isolated from celery seed essential oil that has cytoprotective and antiproliferative activities. It protects against cell injury induced by corticosterone in PC12 cells in a time-dependent manner when used at concentrations ranging from 0.125 to 0.5 mg/ml and reduces corticosterone-induced apoptosis at a concentration of 0.5 mg/ml. It also reverses increases in protein levels of phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and α-synuclein and reverses decreases in the phosphorylated forms of PP2A and α-synuclein. Senkyunolide A inhibits cell proliferation of HT-29 colon cancer (IC50 = 54.17 μM) but not non-cancerous human CCD-18Co colon cells (IC50 = 109.11 μM).
