Bioactivities ofAchillea millefoliumEssential Oil and Its Main Terpenes from Iran

Abstract

Achillea millefolium L. comprise several relevant species for the food, cosmetic, perfumery and pharmaceutical industries. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis revealed borneol to be a major component of A.millefolium, with its contribution to the essential oil (EO) being 36.35%. Borneol exhibited significant lipid peroxidation inhibition and antimicrobial activity against all tested bacterial strains. In addition, borneol had the highest antioxidant activity in all conducted assays. The borneol had significantly greater radical scavenging activity than other component EO and the reference antioxidant Trolox. In addition, a correlation between antioxidant activity and the total phenolic content was found. The borneol significantly inhibited nitric oxide production in lipopolysaccharide-activated macrophages (an in vitro model of inflammation). These results clearly show the antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the plant EOs.

Evaluation of Phytochemical Compositions and Biological Properties of Achillea gypsicola at Different Phenological Stages

“…Our results showed that the free radical scavenging capacity of the plants harvested in full flowering stage was higher than many Achillea species in previous study. It was determined that some Achillea species showed stronger antioxidant activity than positive controls also at previous studies by researchers, as in our study . Antioxidant activity can be varied in different organs and phenological stages of the same species.…”

“…There are many reports about the antimicrobial activity of the volatile oils of Achillea species . Kazemi reported that volatile oil of A. millefolium showed higher antimicrobial activity than the control antibiotics against all fungal and bacterial organisms tested ( C. albicans , A. fumigatus , B. cereus , E. faecalis , S. aureus , E. coli , P. aeruginosa , P. mirabilis , S. typhimurium and C. freundii ).…”

“…The differences among the antimicrobial activities observed in the phenological stages, can be caused by the synthesis of volatile oil components with different rates. Important compounds such as borneol, camphor, menthone, menthol, and 1,8‐cineole have been reported to have antimicrobial activity. When all the basic compounds are evaluated, it can be said that these compounds are proportionally most synthesized at full flowering and post flowering stages.…”

“…Differently, it was reported that terpinene decreased to 32.41 % at post flowering stage in A. biebersteinii . In previous studies, it was found that the volatile oil had components with antimicrobial effect such as borneol, camphor, menthone, menthol, terpenen‐4‐ol, and 1,8‐cineole …”

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of oil from wildAchillea setaceaandA. vermicularis

“…[9,10] Phenolic compounds, such as flavonoids and phenolcarbonic acids, constitute one of the most important groups of pharmacologically active components in yarrow. [8,11,12] Recent studies have demonstrated that the Achillea genus possesses antioxidant activity which is pertained to its total phenolic and flavonoid contents. [11][12][13] Also the morphologic and chemical composition of Achillea species was affected by environmental conditions such as plant genetic type, seasonality, cultivar, geographic location, and developmental stage, because of a chemically polymorphic and perennial.…”