The Impact of Thyme and Rosemary on Prevention of Osteoporosis in Rats

Abstract

Osteoporosis poses an important public health problem which affects millions of people worldwide. There is a direct link between calcium deficiency in diet and induction of osteoporosis and bone loss. The current study was conducted to evaluate the protective effect of thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) against osteoporosis in rats with low calcium intake. Essential oils of rosemary and thyme were analyzed. The experiment was carried out on growing male Sprague–Dawley rats; the experimental animals were divided into 5 groups: 1, control negative was fed standard balanced diet; 2, control positive was fed balanced diet with low calcium level (L Ca) (Ca 0.1% w/w); 3, (L Ca) + thyme powder (5% w/w); 4, (L Ca) + rosemary powder (5% w/w); 5, (L Ca) + orally administration with CaCO3 (27 mg/kg body weight). Blood samples were collected for different biochemical analyses in plasma (calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), C-reactive protein (CRP), malondialdehyde (MDA), parathyroid hormone (PTH), C-terminal telopeptide (CTX), and 1,25-(OH)2-vitamin D3). Femur mass, length, and bone mineral density (BMD) were recorded, and histopathological studies for femurs were examined. Low-calcium diet induced osteoporotic changes in positive control rats (decrease in Ca, vitamin D3, and BMD and increase in CTX, PTH, TNF-α, CRP, and MDA). Supplementation with thyme and rosemary inhibited significantly the development of bone loss, increased Ca and vitamin D3 in plasma, improved BMD, and also prevented the inflammation and oxidative stress (improved TNF-α, CRP and MDA) compared to the positive control. The histopathological examination of treated groups showed an improvement in bone histology and protection against bone loss. However, thyme powder showed more effective impact than rosemary. Our study demonstrates that thyme and rosemary effectively mitigated calcium deficiency-induced bone loss and maybe considered as promising candidates for preventing bone resorption and osteoporosis.

Erucic acid derived from rosemary regulates differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into osteoblasts/adipocytes via suppression of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ transcriptional activity

“…In Europe, people have used rosemary as a spice of folk medicine for a long time. In recent study, it has been revealed that rosemary has many physiological functions such as improving memory (Farr et al, ), antioxidant (Ho, Wang, Wei, Huang, & Huang, ), anti‐inflammation (Rocha et al, ), and antiosteoporosis (Elbahnasawy, Valeeva, El‐Sayed, & Rakhimov, ). Furthermore, it is reported that rosemary contains PPARγ agonists such as carnosic acid, carnosol (Rau et al, ), and rosmaric acid (Han et al, ), which are suggested to contribute to the glucose‐lowering or anti‐inflammatory effects of rosemary.…”

Romero (Rosmarinus officinalis L.): su origen, importancia y generalidades de sus metabolitos secundarios

“…Tratamiento de enfermedades parasitarias en peces, promotor del crecimiento e inmunoestimulante en peces, fumigante natural contra plagas, así como en el control y tratamiento de la caspa. (Ebrahimi et al, 2020) (Borges et al, 2018) (Karim et al, 2017 (Endo et al, 2018) (Zoral et al, 2018) (Ebrahimi et al, 2020) (Nieto et al, 2018) (Karadağ et al, 2019) (Ali et al, 2019) (Selmi et al, 2017) (Sadeh et al, 2019) (Ferreira et al, 2020) (Elbahnasawy et al, 2019) (Akhbari et al, 2018) (de Oliveira et al, 2019 (Ahsaei et al, 2019) (Trupti & Gadekar, 2018).…”

“…Insecticida y antifúngico. Control de plagas en la agricultura, así como en el control y tratamiento de la caspa (Sadeh et al, 2019) (Borges et al, 2018) (Ali et al, 2019) (Selmi et al, 2017) (Ferreira et al, 2020) (Elbahnasawy et al, 2019) (Trupti & Gadekar, 2018).…”

“…Promotor del crecimiento e inmunoestimulante en peces y control de plagas en la agricultura. (Sadeh et al, 2019) (Borges et al, 2018) (Ebrahimi et al, 2020 (Karadağ et al, 2019) (Ali et al, 2019 (Elbahnasawy et al, 2019) (Akhbari et al, 2018.…”

“…Promotor del crecimiento e inmunoestimulante en peces, control de plagas en la agricultura, así como en el control y tratamiento de la caspa. (Karadağ et al, 2019) (Borges et al, 2018) (Karim et al, 2017 (Endo et al, 2018) (Nieto et al, 2018 (Ali et al, 2019) (Selmi et al, 2017) (Kowalski et al, 2018) (Sadeh et al, 2019) (Ferreira et al, 2020) (Sumintarti et al, 2018) (Elbahnasawy et al, 2019).…”