Traditionally, humanity has relied on Nature for treating several diseases. In recent years essential oils (EOs) became an important source of bioactive compounds. Eugenol (4-ally-2-methoxyphenol) is a phenolic compound from the class of phenylpropanoids that can be found in numerous EOs from plants, such as Syzygium aromaticum. Eugenol has commercial relevance in the food and cosmetics industries, and also had shown biological properties such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-tumorigenic, anti-microbial and cytotoxic activity. The interest in this molecule has been increasing also because of its structure, which is interesting for a starting molecule.

In light of the biological properties of eugenol, in this study the cytotoxic activity of various β-amino alcohols and β-alkoxy-alcohols obtained from eugenol was studied in AGS (gastric cancer) and A549 (lung cancer) cell lines. The results show that some structural modifications resulted in enhanced cytotoxic activity towards cancer cells. In addition, the occurrence of a process of programmed cell death, specifically apoptosis, was also studied. Considering the results, some structure/activity relationships can be drawn, which may guide future structural improvements in this lead molecule.