• Although the author claims there are no studies with anethole in prostate cancer, this is not true. There are two recent studies which report the anti-metastatic potential of anethole in the prostate cancer cell line DU-145 (Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2014 May 16; 447(4):557-62 & J Nat Prod. 2014 Jan 24;77(1):63-9). Apart from prostate cancer a good number of studies also report the anti-cancer effect of anethole in breast, ovarian cell lines and rat mammary cancer models. The present work reports the probable cell death inducing activity of anethole in yet another prostate cancer cell line i.e. PC3.
• It is not clear if the colony formation assay was quantified (Fig 1F). If yes how was the quantification done? The effect of anethole on wound healing assay was observed at 500uM concentration which is very high and not in a physiological range. How is this justified? • Except for the cell viability (MTT) assay, the normal control cell line (OEC) has not been used in any of the assays. Data with normal cell line needs to be included in other assays to substantiate the preferential effect of anethole in cancer cells only. • Labeling of subfigures is missing in many figures. The result section should only describe the data and not include discussion of the results. • Discussion is too lengthy and needs to be shortened appropriately.

Conflicts of interest

Do you have any conflicts of interest here? No