Screening of Rosemary Essential Oils with Different Phytochemicals for Antioxidant Capacity, Keratinocyte Cytotoxicity, and Anti-Proliferative Activity

Abstract

Nowadays, the demand for rosemary essential oils (REOs) in the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries is increasing, and the abundant germplasm resources of rosemary provide more possibilities for functional applications. The REOs from six cultivars were selected to evaluate and compare their bioactivities. REOs have good cellular antioxidant activity in scavenging reactive oxygen species, and the technology for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS)-random forest multivariate model indicated that ‘Dutch Mill’ REO has the best antioxidant activity, which is closely related to its verbenone content. In addition, α-pinene-dominant REOs are more toxic to human keratinocytes, which is closely related to the content of α-pinene, as revealed by multivariate analyses. Moreover, anti-proliferative assays on six cancer cell lines showed that all REOs have a higher anti-proliferative ability against human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 and gastric epithelial cell line NCI-N87. Among them, ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’ and ‘Blue Lagoon’ REOs exhibit more prominent anti-proliferative activity. Our study provides a reference value for exploring the application potential of different REOs by evaluating their differences in chemical composition and bioactivity.

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of petroleum ether fraction of Rosmarinus officinalis

“…As previously reported, the high antioxidant activity can be attributed to the significant presence of terpenoids and olefins, as well as the effective capture of free radicals by the carbon-carbon double bonds [ 30 ]. These components create a powerful synergy [ 31 ], enhancing the beneficial effects of the extract. However, the reported study highlighted that the antioxidant activity of PEF-RO is not solely dependent on its main components and may be influenced by minor ones.…”

Multifunctional Polymeric Biodegradable and Biocompatible Coatings Based on Silver Nanoparticles: A Comparative In Vitro Study on Their Cytotoxicity towards Cancer and Normal Cell Lines of Cytostatic Drugs versus Essential-Oil-Loaded Nanoparticles and on Their Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Activities

“…A recent extensive screening study employing rosemary EOs from six different cultivars assessed comparatively the antiproliferative effects on six cancer cell lines. All the studied rosemary EOs showed high antiproliferative ability against the human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 and the gastric epithelial cell line NCI-N87 [ 48 ]. The authors noticed that the same EO had different antiproliferative effects on different cancer cell lines and that different EOs with different compositions of phytochemicals had different effects on the same cancer cell line.…”

Rosemary: Unrevealing an old aromatic crop as a new source of promising functional food additive—A review

“…In general, the rosemary extracts have been believed to have strong anti‐tumor/anti‐cancer activities, which can inhibit the proliferation, migration, and colony formation of a variety of human cancer cells, such as gastric cancer (Huang et al., 2023), breast cancer (Song et al., 2023), lung cancer (O'Neill et al., 2022), colon cancer (Ibrahim et al., 2021), prostate cancer (Jaglanian et al., 2020), skin cancer (Kallimanis et al., 2022), liver cancer (Al‐Qasmi, 2022), and cervical cancer (Rizwana et al., 2022). Initially, many scientists believed that the anti‐tumor effect of rosemary might be related to its potent antioxidant activity.…”