Antibacterial Activity and Anticancer Activity of Rosmarinus officinalis L. Essential Oil Compared to That of Its Main Components
1
Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Hexing Road 26, Harbin 150040, China
2
Engineering Research Center of Forest Bio-preparation, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Hexing Road 26, Harbin 150040, China
3
Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Mainz, Mainz 55099, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Molecules 2012, 17(3), 2704-2713; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules17032704
Received: 9 January 2012 / Revised: 20 February 2012 / Accepted: 27 February 2012 / Published: 5 March 2012
In this study, Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oil and three of its main components 1,8-cineole (27.23%), α-pinene (19.43%) and β-pinene (6.71%) were evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activities and toxicology properties. R. officinalis L. essential oil possessed similar antibacterial activities to α-pinene, and a little bit better than β-pinene, while 1,8-cineole possessed the lowest antibacterial activities. R. officinalis L. essential oil exhibited the strongest cytotoxicity towards three human cancer cells. Its inhibition concentration 50% (IC50) values on SK-OV-3, HO-8910 and Bel-7402 were 0.025‰, 0.076‰ and 0.13‰ (v/v), respectively. The cytotoxicity of all the test samples on SK-OV-3 was significantly stronger than on HO-8910 and Bel-7402. In general, R. officinalis L. essential oil showed greater activity than its components in both antibacterial and anticancer test systems, and the activities were mostly related to their concentrations.
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Keywords:
Rosmarinus officinalis L.; 1,8-cineole; α-pinene; β-pinene; antibacterial activities; cytotoxicity
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MDPI and ACS Style
Wang, W.; Li, N.; Luo, M.; Zu, Y.; Efferth, T. Antibacterial Activity and Anticancer Activity of Rosmarinus officinalis L. Essential Oil Compared to That of Its Main Components. Molecules 2012, 17, 2704-2713.
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