True laurel,
Cinnamomum porrectum (Roxb.) Kosterm., is an evergreen broad-leaved tree that belongs to the Lauraceae family. Many parts of this plant, such as roots, bark, wood, and leafy branchlets contain camphor and volatile oil. The wood is used for furniture and cabinets due to its fine grain. The leaves are consumed by silkworm as animal feed. The fruit kernel has fat and oil up to 60% which are utilized in soap production [1]. In addition, oil from root obviously has antibacterial and antifungal activities [2]. From our knowledge, plant can be called as “Chemical Factory” since it manufactures a lot of natural chemicals which are useful for human life. One of the valuable phytochemicals produced from plant is safrole. Commonly safrole can be found in different plant species of Piperaceae and Lauraceae family, including true laurel. Safrole is an important raw material for the production of heliotropin, which is broadly used as a fragrance and flavoring agent, and the production of piperonyl butoxide (PBO), an essential ingredient of pyrethroid insecticides. Safrole also has many fragrance applications in household manufactured goods such as polishes, soaps, detergents, floor waxes and cleaning agents [3], [4], [5]. Recently, Yu et al. [6] found that safrole had anticancer effect on human oral cancer cells. In this case, safrole decreased carcinoma cells by initiation of apoptosis. Moreover, some safrole derivatives also had antiproliferative effect on cancer cell lines without any toxicity towards dermal human fibroblast cells [7].