Medicinal Uses, Phytochemistry, and Pharmacology of Origanum onites (L.): A Review

Abstract

Origanum onites L., known as Turkish oregano, has great traditional, medicinal, preservative, and commercial importance. It is used for the treatment of several kinds of ailments, such as gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, high cholesterol, leukemia, bronchitis, etc. In this review, traditional use, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of O. onites reported between 1988 and 2014 were discussed. This review was prepared based on literature survey on scientific journals and books from libraries and electronic sources, such as Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc. All databases were searched up to June 2014. Several different classes of terpenoids, triterpene acids, phenolic acids, hydroquinones, flavonoids, hydrocarbons, sterols, pigments, fatty acids, tocopherols, and inorganic compounds were detected mainly in the aerial parts of this plant. Pharmacological studies revealed that extracts obtained from several solvents and individual compounds exhibited antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, insecticidal, anticancer, hepatoprotective, genotoxic, antidiabetic, cholinesterase inhibitory, anti-inflammatory, analgesic activities, etc. O. onites, in general, exhibited remarkable activity potential in almost all test systems. The results of toxicity studies indicated that O. onites did not show any significant toxicity and mutagenicity on Drosophila and Salmonella. Toxicity of the extracts/essential oils and also individual compounds should be evaluated on mammalian cells to ensure their safety. The bioactivity of individual compounds aside from terpenoids should also be assessed in detail. Additionally, mode of action for the bioactive compounds should be evaluated to understand the complex pharmacological effects of these phytochemicals.

Effects of Origanum vulgare essential oil and its two main components, carvacrol and thymol, on the plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea

“…Origanum species are herbaceous perennials distributed in different parts of the world including the Mediterranean, Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, Northern Africa, and Europe (Aligiannis et al, 2001; De Martino et al, 2009a). The genus Origanum consisits of 43 species and 18 hybrids (Tepe, Cakir & Sihoglu Tepe, 2016). They are typically applied in food and cosmetics as a flavoring and aromatic agent (Gomez et al, 2018;Jan et al, 2020), and widely used in agriculture and traditional medicine due to its antimicrobial activity and antioxidant activities (Rodriguez-Garcia et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2018;Elshafie et al, 2015).…”

“…Interestingly, although many of Origanum species shared the same ingredients, it showed significant differences to the same microorganism (De Martino, De Feo & Nazzaro, 2009b;Mamadalieva et al, 2017;Moumni et al, 2020). This suggests that the antimicrobial effect of EOs may be related to the proportion of the main antimicrobial components or the synergistic with antagonistic effects of different chemical components (Wink, 2015;Tepe, Cakir & Sihoglu Tepe, 2016). So far, there is no evidence that Origanum species and its main components are harmful to humans and animals and have high phytotoxicity (Mancini et al, 2014;Llana-Ruiz-Cabello et al, 2017;Elshafie et al, 2017).…”

From Bio-Prospecting to Field Assessment: The Case of Carvacrol Rich Essential Oil as a Potent Mosquito Larvicidal and Repellent Agent

“…pipiens (Koliopoulos et al, 2010). Rigani EO bioactivities were reviewed by Tepe (Tepe et al, 2016), whom recorded its potentials as Cx. pipiens larvicide.…”

Aromatic Medicinal Plants of the Lamiaceae Family from Uzbekistan: Ethnopharmacology, Essential Oils Composition, and Biological Activities

“…The genus Origanum L. consists of 43 species and 18 hybrids; most of which are distributed through the eastern Mediterranean region [ 16 ]. Only one species, Origanum tyttanthum Gontsch., is found in Uzbekistan.…”