Citral down-regulated Bcl-2 mRNA level and up-regulated Bax mRNA level in a dose-dependent manner. The 4 lanes of the electrophoresis from 1 to 4 stand for the 0, 5, 10 , 20 μg/ml group respectively, and the lane 5 stand for the ethanol group. Three independent experiments were performed with similar results, and representative data are shown (* compared with group 0 μg/mL, p < 0.05)