Downy Lavender Oil: A Promising Source of Antimicrobial, Antiobesity, and Anti‐Alzheimer’s Disease Agents

Abstract

Lavandula pubescens Decne (LP) is one of the three Lavandula species growing wildly in the Dead Sea Valley, Palestine. The products derived from the plant, including the essential oil (EO), have been used in Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine (TAPHM) for centuries as therapeutic agents. The EO is traditionally believed to have sedative, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antidepressive, antiamnesia, and antiobesity properties. This study was therefore aimed to assess the in vitro bioactivities associated with the LP EO. The EO was separated by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of LP plants and analyzed for its antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticholinesterase, and antilipase activities. GC-MS was used for phytochemical analysis. The chemical analysis of the EO composition revealed 25 constituents, of which carvacrol (65.27%) was the most abundant. EO exhibited strong antioxidant (IC50 0.16–0.18 μL/mL), antiacetylcholinesterase (IC50 0.9 μL/mL), antibutyrylcholinesterase (IC50 6.82 μL/mL), and antilipase (IC50 1.08 μL/mL) effects. The EO also demonstrated high antibacterial activity with the highest susceptibility observed for Staphylococcus aureus with 95.7% inhibition. The EO was shown to exhibit strong inhibitory activity against Candida albicans (MIC 0.47 μL/mL). The EO was also shown to possess strong antidermatophyte activity against Microsporum canis, Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, and Epidermophyton floccosum (EC50 0.05–0.06 μL/mL). The high antioxidant, enzyme inhibitory, and antimicrobial potentials of the EO can, therefore, be correlated with its high content of monoterpenes, especially carvacrol, as shown by its comparable bioactivities indicators results. This study provided new insights into the composition and bioactivities of LP EO. Our finding revealed evidence that LP EO makes a valuable natural source of bioactive molecules showing substantial potential as antioxidant, neuroprotective, antihyperlipidemic, and antimicrobial agents. This study demonstrates, for the first time, that LP EO might be useful for further investigation aiming at integrative CAM and clinical applications in the management of dermatophytosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and obesity.

Essential Oil Analysis and Antimicrobial Evaluation of Three Aromatic Plant Species Growing in Saudi Arabia

“…This species is, indeed, reported as having a phenolic-type EO profile among species belonging to this genus [ 39 ]. Several bioactivities of the EO are reported in the literature; for example, it is antioxidant and antimicrobial towards a wide variety of bacterial and fungal strains responsible for human and animal diseases, e.g., Staphylococcus aureus , E. coli , Candida albicans , and Microsporum canis [ 28 , 30 ].…”

“…L. pubescens is reported in the literature as a species commonly found among the wild flora in Middle-Eastern Asia and Mediterranean Africa; it is, indeed, mainly reported as growing in Palestine [ 28 ], Yemen [ 29 , 30 , 31 ], Saudi Arabia [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]. For P. incisa subsp.…”

Study on Lavender Essential Oil Chemical Compositions by GC-MS and Improved pGC

“…Many reports published have shown lavender essential oil to possess high cholinesterase inhibitory activities [ 6 , 7 ] and other biological activities beneficial to human health, such as being antibacterial, antifungal [ 8 ], sedative [ 9 ], anti-depressive, effective for burns and insect bites [ 10 ], anticancer [ 11 ], anti-spasmolytic, anti-inflammatory [ 12 ], antioxidant [ 13 ], acaricides etc. [ 14 ].…”

Essential Oils as a Potential Neuroprotective Remedy for Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Review

“…However, EO from L. angustifolia did not give a required finding because it enhanced the Aβ aggregation based on the thioflavin T method; this effect was further confirmed by atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging. EO of L. angustifolia was also showed to counteract the increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species production and the activation of the pro-apoptotic enzyme caspase-3 induced by Aβ1–42 oligomers [ 23 , 24 ]. Meanwhile, EO from L. pubescens exhibited strong anti-AChE and anti-BChE effects at IC 50 of 0.9 μL/mL and 6.82 μL/mL, respectively.…”