Green drugs in the fight against Anisakis simplex—larvicidal activity and acetylcholinesterase inhibition of Origanum compactum essential oil

Abstract

Anisakiasis is a fish-borne parasitic disease caused by the consumption of raw or undercooked fish, as well as cephalopods, contaminated by third instar larvae (L3) of species belonging to the genus Anisakis (Anisakidae). Origanum compactum is a small herbaceous aromatic plant endemic to Spain and Morocco. In Morocco, the plant is used under infusion to treat heart diseases and intestinal pains or as preservative for foodstuffs. This is the first time that the O. compactum essential oil is tested against the parasitic nematode Anisakis simplex. The phytochemical analysis by GC-MS revealed carvacrol (50.3%) and thymol (14.8%) as the major oil constituents. The essential oil and its major constituents carvacrol and thymol were tested against A. simplex L3 larvae isolated from blue whiting fish (Micromesistius poutassou). A. simplex mortality (%) after 24 and 48 h of treatment at 1 μl/ml was 100%, with a low LD50 compared with other essential oils and extracts, and the penetration in the agar assay was also reduced, if compared with control wells. The oil, as well as its major constituents, demonstrated a dose-dependent larvicidal activity. Inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase through a colorimetric assay in 96-well plates was used to elucidate the pharmacological mechanism as this enzyme plays a key role in nematodes neuromuscular function. Interestingly, O. compactum essential oil, carvacrol and thymol inhibited the enzyme, confirming that this could be one of the mechanisms involved in the anthelmintic activity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that O. compactum essential oil is reported as a larvicidal agent against A. simplex L3 larvae.

Efficacy of Two Monoterpenoids, Carvacrol and Thymol, and Their Combinations against Eggs and Larvae of the West Nile Vector Culex pipiens

“…Furthermore, it was shown that thymol may work by blocking octopamine receptors, which are unique to insects and considered as an important target site for pest and vector control [10,14]. On the other hand, the actual role of thymol and carvacrol to interact with the cholinergic system of insects cannot be neglected [62]. Instead, their interaction with the detoxification system of insects can be excluded [63].…”

Chemical composition and insecticidal potential of different Origanum spp. (Lamiaceae) essential oils against four stored product pests

“…Different activities of Origanum spp. such as antioxidant (Dutra et al, 2019), cytotoxic (Coccimiglio et al, 2016), antimicrobial (Lesjak et al, 2016;Reyes-Jurado et al, 2019), anti-acetylcholinesterase (Abou-Taleb et al, 2016;Hajlaoui et al, 2016;López et al, 2018), antibacterial (da Cunha et al, 2018;Wijesundara & Rupasinghe, 2018), repellent (Govindarajan et al, 2016;La Pergola et al, 2017;Giatropoulos et al, 2018), antifungal (Vinciguerra et al, 2018), allelopathic (Boukaew et al, 2017), phytotoxic (Ibáñez & Blázquez, 2018;Grul'ová et al, 2019) insecticidal (Kim et al, 2016;Szczepanik et al, 2018;Benelli et al, 2019) have been determined in a number of studies.…”

Efficacy of Origanum syriacum Essential Oil against the Mosquito Vector Culex quinquefasciatus and the Gastrointestinal Parasite Anisakis simplex, with Insights on Acetylcholinesterase Inhibition

“…Plant secondary metabolites represent an ancient and huge source of bioactive molecules of potential interest for developing new insecticides [23,24,25] and antiparasitic drugs [26,27,28,29,30,31]. The genus Origanum L. (Lamiaceae) comprises 43 species (51 taxa) worldwide [32,33,34,35,36,37,38], with its center of diversity in the Mediterranean area [32].…”

“…Based on the above, we hypothesized that the essential oil from this plant species may be exploited further as a useful source of compounds with antiparasitic and insecticide activity. Therefore, boosting our research line focused on disclosing new essential oils and isolated compounds with promising effectiveness against parasites and vectors of public importance [31,58,59,60], herein we evaluated the activity of the essential oil obtained from the Lebanese O. syriacum against the parasitic nematode A. simplex, through larvicidal and penetration assays. Furthermore, this oil was assessed for its bioactivity on the larvae of the mosquito vector C. quinquefasciatus .…”