Introduction: Among the high incidence cancers, urinary bladder carcinoma is the fourth most common malignancies among men. Similar to a large number of tumours, intrinsic or developed resistance to cancer chemotherapeutic agents is the main barrier to successful treatment of bladder carcinoma. Ferula is a genus with about 170 species of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to the Mediterranean area, especially in countries such as Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic effects of ferutinin, a monoterpenoid from Ferula ovina, on bladderTransitional cell carcinoma (TCC) cells and non-cancerous (HFF3) fibroblastic cells. Methods: To determine the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of ferutinin, TCC and HFF3 cells were treated with different concentrations (5, 10, 20, 30, 40,50,100 μg/ml) of ferutinin. The viability of cells was then evaluated by MTT assay after 24, 48 and 72 hours. Results: Analysis of cell survival showed that the IC50 of ferutinin on TCC cells were 36, 27 and 24 μg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h of its administration, respectively. Furthermore, ferutinin induced its toxic effects on HFF3 cells at 46, 38 and 38 μg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h of its administration, respectively. Morphological observations also confirmed the effects of ferutinin on both cell lines as prominent cytoplasmic granulations. Conclusions: Ferula ovina, which contains high doses of monoterpenes, is an edible plant that is used for its various therapeutic effects in Iranian traditional medicine. Due to its great toxic effects, ferutinin could be considered as an effective cytotoxic agent for clinical experiments. Further stadies are required to investigate the effects of ferutinin on other normal and concerous cell lines.

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