Three Origanum essential oils, Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum, Origanum dictamnus, and a commercially available Origanum oil, were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and showed a high content of carvacrol, thymol, γ-terpinene, and p-cymene representing 73.7%, 92.8%, and 87.78% of the total oil, respectively. The three essential oils exhibited high levels of antimicrobial activity against eight strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Among the major components of the three oils, carvacrol and thymol exhibited the highest levels of antimicrobial activity, while their biosynthetic precursors γ-terpinene and p-cymene were inactive. The essential oil of O. vulgare ssp. hirtum was extremely bactericidal at 1/4000 dilution and even at dilutions as high as 1/50000 caused considerable decrease in bacterial growth rates. The same essential oil also exhibited high levels of cytotoxicity against four permanent animal cell lines including two derived from human cancers.

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Salvia fructicosa essential oil analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry showed high contents of 1,8-cineole, α- and β-thujone, and camphor, representing 47.48%, 11.93%, and 9.04% of the total oil, respectively. The essential oil and its isolated components thujone and 1,8-cineole exhibited antimicrobial activity against eight bacterial strains, while camphor was almost inactive against all of the bacteria tested. The essential oil was bactericidal at 1/4000 dilution, and dilutions up to 1/10000 caused considerable decrease in bacterial growth rates. The essential oil of S. fructicosa and the three main components exhibited cytotoxic activity against African Green Monkey kidney (Vero) cells and high levels of virucidal activity against herpes simplex virus 1, a ubiquitous human virus. Keywords: Salvia fructicosa; essential oil; antimicrobial activity; cytotoxicity; antiviral activity (herpes simplex virus); camphor; 1,8-cineole; thujone

β-Thalassemia major results from severely reduced or absent expression of the β-chain of adult hemoglobin (α2β2;HbA). Increased levels of fetal hemoglobin (α2γ2;HbF), such as occurs with hereditary persistence of HbF, ameliorate the severity of β-thalassemia, raising the potential for genetic therapy directed at enhancing HbF. We used an in vitro model of human erythropoiesis to assay for enhanced production of HbF after gene delivery into CD34+ cells obtained from mobilized peripheral blood of normal adults or steady-state bone marrow from patients with β-thalassemia major. Lentiviral vectors encoding (1) a human γ-globin gene with or without an insulator, (2) a synthetic zinc-finger transcription factor designed to interact with the γ-globin gene promoters, or (3) a short-hairpin RNA targeting the γ-globin gene repressor, BCL11A, were tested. Erythroid progeny of normal CD34+ cells demonstrated levels of HbF up to 21% per vector copy. For β-thalassemic CD34+ cells, similar gene transfer efficiencies achieved HbF production ranging from 45% to 60%, resulting in up to a 3-fold increase in the total cellular Hb content. These observations suggest that both lentiviral-mediated γ-globin gene addition and genetic reactivation of endogenous γ-globin genes have potential to provide therapeutic HbF levels to patients with β-globin deficiency.