Assessment of Anti-Cancerous Effect of Green, Roasted and Decaffeinated Coffee on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Line (In Vitro Study)

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevailing malignancies of the head and neck area. So far, treatment methods are associated with harmful effects which drive attention towards natural compounds such as coffee. The current study attempted to test the anti-cancerous effect of green coffee, medium roasted coffee and decaffeinated coffee in OSCC cell lines and correlate the obtained results with their total phenolic content. We prepared coffee extracts using soxhlet apparatus. Then, we purchased and sub-cultured OSCC-25 cell into four study groups. We subjected three of those groups to coffee extracts separately. We left the remaining group without any treatment as a control group. We assessed cell cytotoxic effect of each extract by MTT viability assay. Additionally, we evaluated the apoptotic effect of each extract on OSCC-25 cell lines using flowcytometric analysis. Finally, we measured the total phenolic content in each coffee extract. The results revealed that coffee extracts induced varying degrees of cell cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Green coffee showed the highest cytotoxic and apoptotic effect followed by medium roasted coffee, then decaffeinated coffee. The total percentage of necrotic cells were higher in the coffee extracts groups, compared to the control group with a higher value in favor of green coffee followed by medium roasted coffee. Upon chemical analysis, the results showed that green coffee extract contained the highest concentration of phenolic compounds followed by medium roasted coffee then decaffeinated coffee extracts. We concluded that green coffee was the most potent anti-cancer extract. It seems plausible that coffee, and particularly green coffee could be for treating of OSCC.