Introduction: Malignant tumors are the major cause of concern to human health, and have been listed as an important factor which have threatened human health by World Health Organization (WHO). In recent years the development of antitumor drugs has gradually moved from cytotoxic drugs to improving the selectivity of drugs along with overcoming multidrug resistance, development of new targeted drugs with low toxicity and high specificity drugs. Many natural occurring products have been tried in the treatment of cancer. Amygdalin is one such product. Vitamin B-17, commonly known as "Amygdalin”, or "Laetrile", is a natural substance that can be found in a variety of species in the Vegetable kingdom. The greatest concentration is found in the seeds of the rosaceous fruits, such as apricot kernels and other bitter nuts. Amygdalin is a cyanogenic compound and belongs to the aromatic cyanogenic glycoside group. Moreover it has numerous pharmacological effects on the various system of the body. It has anticancer function by decomposing carcinogenic substances in the body, killing cancer cells, blocking nutrient source of tumor cells, inhibiting cancer cell growth. This study is designed to investigate the effect of Vitamin B17 (amygdalin) on oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Materials and methods: Apricot oil obtained from dried apricot seeds are a rich source of amygdalin. The apricot oil was freshly dissolved in cell culture medium (1–10 mg/ml) and applied to tumor cells in culture flasks for 24 h. In all experiments, treated tumor cell cultures were compared to non-treated cultures. Oral Squamous cell line (KB mouth cell line) were obtained and cytotoxicity of the cells was observed based on the morphological changes. Results: Apricot oil caused a significant decrease in cell viability of the cell line. Conclusion: Based on the literature review and the present study, Amygdalin, present in the apricot seed oil had a noteworthy antineoplastic activity on the oral cancer cells and may be further used for animal experiments and later subjected to clinical trials.
