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Juglone is an allelopathic compound secreted by the black walnut tree, a member of the Juglandaceae family, and it serves as an active ingredient in many herbal preparations as well as a commercial dye. Because of its broad therapeutic potential, it is regarded as an important phytochemical. Black walnut extract has a long history of use in folk medicine against various cancers, and the compound shows antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antitumor activity. Building on this background, Zielińska, Płonka-Czerw, and Kuśmierz, publishing in BioTechnologia in 2022, set out to examine how juglone affects the viability and proliferation of two melanoma cell lines in vitro, C-32 (amelanotic) and COLO 829 (melanotic), and how it influences mRNA expression of the proapoptotic BAX and CASP3 genes and the antiapoptotic BCL2 gene. Normal HFF-1 dermal fibroblasts were also included for comparison.The researchers observed that juglone affected viability, proliferation, and cell death in a dose-dependent way in both melanoma lines and in the normal fibroblasts, although the melanoma cells proved more sensitive. Melanoma cultures exposed to juglone showed lower cell density relative to controls than fibroblast cultures did, and both melanoma lines responded more strongly to lower doses. At 25 μM, cell death rose by roughly 25% in C-32 cells and 29% in COLO 829 cells compared with untreated controls, pointing to a death-promoting effect at this concentration alongside reduced sensitivity in HFF-1 fibroblasts. The gene expression analysis also revealed distinct mRNA patterns for all studied genes between melanoma and normal cells, suggesting that juglone may hold promise as a selective anti-melanoma agent worth further investigation.