A Multi-Approach Study of Phytochemicals and Their Effects on Oxidative Stress and Enzymatic Activity of Essential Oil and Crude Extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis

Abstract

Rosmarinus officinalis or Rosemary is a highly valued medicinal vegetal, owing to its notable antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties. In the current work, we aimed to identify the chemical components of the essential oil (EO) of R. officinalis and evaluate its biological properties using an in vitro approach. High performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-TOF-MS) was utilized to analyze of the hydro-methanolic extract (HME), while gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was considered during the analysis of the EO’s chemical composition. The antioxidant abilities of HME and the EO were assessed using diverse tests (DPPH, ABTS, GOR, CUPRAC, and FRAP). The anti-enzymatic properties were tested by the inhibition of cholinesterases, α-glucosidase, and tyrosinase enzyme. The HPLC-TOF-MS displayed the existence of flavonoids like luteolin glucuronide I and II, and a few known hydroxycinnamic acids. The EO contained three major components, namely, eucalyptol (28.7%), camphor (16.7%), and borneol (13.5%). The HME had a high total polyphenol content, as determined by the Folin–Ciocalteau method (335.37 ± 9.33 µg of gallic acid eq·mg−1). Notably, the analysis of the bioactivities of the HME and EO revealed comparatively that they possessed higher radical scavenging capacity in the DPPH, ABTS, and galvinoxyl assays, while EO exhibited a higher capacity for enzyme inhibition. Overall, our findings suggest that both the EO and HME extract of Algerian’s R. officinalis holds great usefulness in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical fields due to its elevated polyphenol content and potent bioactivities.

Phytochemical Profiling and Biological Assessment of the Aerial Parts from Three Mediterranean Alkanna Species (A. orientalis, A. tinctoria, A. kotschyana) in the Boraginaceae Family

“…The observed abilities can be attributed to the presence of some compounds. For example, rosmarinic acid showed greater inhibition of these enzymes in in vivo and in vitro studies [ 44 , 45 ]. In addition, quercetin and its glucoside are known as natural antidiabetic agents [ 46 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Chemical Variability and Anti‐Inflammatory Activity of Rosmarinus officinalis L. Leaf Essential Oil from Algerian Sahara

“…In general, aerial parts of R. officinalis were harvested at full flowering. However, most papers reported the chemical composition of a unique oil sample, mostly harvested on the wild and scarcely cultivated [7–22] . A few papers concerned 2–6 oil samples [23,24–30] .…”

“…The first group contains all the essential oil samples whose composition is strongly dominated by a major component (with a content at least twice that of the second component) i) 1,8‐cineole (30–73 %), [7–9,20,21,23,26,28–31,33,34] ii) α‐pinene (28.5–51.8 %), [27,31,35] iii) camphor (33.1–52.1 %) [23,26,31,36] . The remaining oil samples displayed two‐three components with more or less similar contents i) α‐pinene/cineole/camphor; [7,11,12,14,18,24,26,33] ii) α‐pinene/camphene/camphor; [19,26,27,30,31] iii) α‐pinene/camphor; [24,27] iv) cineole/camphor; [10,22,25,33] v) miscellaneous [15] . A few oil samples contained verbenone at fair content [11–13,16,23,24,27,35] while ( E )‐β‐caryophyllene was the unique sesquiterpene present at appreciable content [10,17,23] …”