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Chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oils from Vitex-agnus castus, Ocimum campechianum and Ocimum carnosum

Abstract

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from fresh leaves of Vitex agnus-castus and Ocimum campechianum, and from fresh inflorescences of Ocimum carnosum were analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS. The major components of V. agnus-castus essential oil were identified as 1,8-cineole (47.9%), terpinyl α-acetate (11.6%), sabinene (11.2%) and caryophyllene oxide (9.7%), while in the O. campechianum essential oil were eugenol (72.1%), β-elemene (6.8%), (E)-caryophyllene (6.4%) and bicyclogermacrene (5.2%). Linalool (79.0%), α-epi-cadinol (5.4%), terpinen-4-ol (3.2%) and 1,8-cineole (2.8%) were the major constituents in the O. carnosum essential oil. The essential oils were subsequently evaluated for their larvicidal and cytotoxic activities. Larval bioassay against Aedes aegypti of V. agnus-castus, O. campechianum and O. carnosum essential oils showed LC50 values of 97.55 ± 0.35, 81.45 ± 0.35 and 109.49 ± 0.35 μg/mL, respectively. The in vitro cytotoxic activities of the essential oils has been evaluated on breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), lung carcinoma (NCI-H292), pro-myelocytic leukemia (HL-60), and cervical adenocarcinoma (HEP-2) human cell lines, and pro-myelocytic leukemia cells lines (HL-60) were found to be the most sensitive to all the essential oils tested than the others. This is the first report on larvicidal and cytotoxic activities of these essential oils.

Key words
Aedes aegypti; Cytotoxic activity; Lamiaceae; Larvicidal activity

INTRODUCTION

Aedes aegypti Linnaeus (Diptera: Culicidae) is the main vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus. This species is widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical countries, where environmental and climatic conditions of temperature and humidity allow its proliferation (JansenJANSEN CC & BEEBE NW. 2010. The dengue vector Aedes aegypti: what comes next. Microbes Infect 12: 272-279. & Beebe 2010, FujiwaraFUJIWARA GM et al. 2017. Evaluation of larvicidal activity and ecotoxicity of linalool, methyl cinnamate and methyl cinnamate​/linalool in combination against Aedes aegypti. Ecotox Environ Safe 139: 238-244. et al. 2017). In addition, the geographical range of Ae. aegypti is increasing due to rapid urbanization and increased global movement of people and cargo (AlSheblyALSHEBLY MM, ALQAHTANI FS, GOVINDARAJAN M, GOPINATH K, VIJAYAN P & BENELLI G. 2017. Toxicity of ar-curcumene and epi-β-bisabolol from Hedychium larsenii (Zingiberaceae) essential oil on malaria, chikungunya and St. Louis encephalitis mosquito vectors. Ecotoxicol Environ Safe 137: 149-157. et al. 2017). There are no specific drugs for the treatment of these diseases; therefore, the best strategy available to reduce the incidence of these viral diseases is the control of the insect vector (MoreiraMOREIRA ASN, FERNANDES ROS, LEMOS FJA, BRAZ-FILHO R & VIEIRA IJC. 2016. Larvicidal activity of Ramalina usnea lichen against Aedes aegypti. Braz J Pharmacog 26: 530-532. et al. 2016). Synthetic insecticides and insect growth regulators are widely used to reduce larval instars of mosquitoes. However, the frequent use of these insecticides can result in insecticide resistance, environmental pollution, and risks to human and other organisms (AlShebly et al. 2017).

Cancer is a disease that contributes to the uncontrolled growth and invasion of the abnormal cells leading to the formation of tumor, and is one the major causes of death worldwide. Chemotherapy is an important cancer treatment. However, the high cost, increasing multidrug resistance, and side effects direct the search for alternative chemotherapeutic agents (GautamGAUTAM N, MANTHA AK & MITTAL S. 2014. Essential oils and their constituents as anticancer agents: a mechanistic view. BioMed Res Int 2014: Article ID 154106. et al. 2014, Campos-XolalpaCAMPOS-XOLALPA N, ALONSO-CASTRO AJ, SÁNCHEZ-MENDOZA E, ZAVALA-SÁNCHEZ MA & PÉREZ-GUTIÉRREZ S. 2017. Cytotoxic activity of chloroform extract and four diterpenes isolated from Salvia ballotiflora. Braz J Pharmacog 27: 302-305. et al. 2017).

Plants essential oils can be used as alternative sources of Ae. aegypti larval control agents (AguiarAGUIAR JCD et al. 2010. Chemical constituents and larvicidal activity of Hymenaea courbaril fruit peel. Nat Prod Commun 5: 1977-1980. et al. 2010, GoisGOIS RWS, DE SOUSA LM, LEMOS TLG, ARRIAGA AMC, ANDRADE-NETO M, SANTIAGO GMP, FERREIRA YS, ALVES PB & DE JESUS HCR. 2011. Chemical composition and larvicidal effects of essential oil from Bauhinia acuruana (Moric) against Aedes aegypti. J Essent Oil Res 23: 59-62. et al. 2011, DiasDIAS CN & MORAES DFC. 2014. Essential oils and their compounds as Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) larvicides: review. Parasitol Res 113: 565-592. & Moraes 2014, PavelaPAVELA R. 2015. Essential oils for the development of eco-friendly mosquito larvicides: a review. Ind Crops Prod 76: 174-187. 2015, CarvalhoCARVALHO KS, SILVA SLC, DE SOUZA IA, GUALBERTO SA, DA CRUZ RCD, DOS SANTOS FR & DE CARVALHO MG. 2016. Toxicological evaluation of essential oil from the leaves of Croton tetradenius (Euphorbiaceae) on Aedes aegypti and Mus musculus. Parasitol Res 115: 3441-3448. et al. 2016, De Sousa et al. 2016DE SOUSA LM et al.. 2016. Chemical composition, larvicidal and cytotoxic activities of the essential oils from two Bauhinia species. Rec Nat Prod 10: 341-348., MendesMENDES LA, MARTINS GF, VALBON WR, DE SOUZA TS, MENINI L, FERREIRA A & FERREIRA MFS. 2017. Larvicidal effect of essential oils from Brazilian cultivars of guava on Aedes aegypti L. Ind Crops Prod 108: 684-689. et al. 2017, NascimentoNASCIMENTO AMD, MAIA TDS, SOARES TES, MENEZES LRA, SCHER R, COSTA EV, CAVALCANTI SCH & LA CORTE R. 2017. Repellency and larvicidal activity of essential oils from Xylopia laevigata, Xylopia frutescens, Lippia pedunculosa, and their individual compounds against Aedes aegypti Linnaeus. Neotrop Entomol 46: 223-230. et al. 2017, MarMAR JM, SILVA LS, AZEVEDO SG, FRANCA LP, GOES AFF, DOS SANTOS AL, BEZERRA JA, NUNOMURA RCS, MACHADO MB & SANCHES EA. 2018. Lippia origanoides essential oil: an efficient alternative to control Aedes aegypti, Tetranychus urticae and Cerataphis lataniae. Ind Crops Prod 111: 292-297. et al. 2018), and have been reported to show cytotoxic activity when tested on human cancer cell lines (Gautam et al. 2014, LesgardsLESGARDS JF, BALDOVINI N, VIDAL N & PIETRI S. 2014. Anticancer activities of essential oils constituents and synergy with conventional therapies: a review. Phytother Res 28: 1423-1446. et al. 2014, De Sousa et al. 2016, KumarKUMAR R, SHARMA S, SHARMA S, KUMARI A, KUMAR D, NADDA G, PADWAD Y, OGRA RK & KUMAR N. 2016. Chemical composition, cytotoxicity and insecticidal activities of Acorus calamus accessions from the western Himalayas. Ind Crops Prod 94: 520-527. et al. 2016, SalehSALEH AM, AL-QUDAH MA, NASR A, RIZVI SA, BORAI A & DAGHISTANI M. 2017. Comprehensive analysis of the chemical composition and in vitro cytotoxic mechanisms of Pallines spinosa flower and leaf essential oils against breast cancer cells. Cell Physiol Biochem 42: 2043-2065. et al. 2017, Tavakoli et al. 2017, Vasilijevic et al. 2018).

In this context, this study reports the larvicidal and cytotoxic activities of the essential oils from leaves of Vitex agnus-castus L. (Lamiaceae) and Ocimum campechianum Mill. (Lamiaceae), formely O. micranthum, and from inflorescences of Ocimum carnosum (Spreng) Link & Otto ex Benth (Lamiaceae), formely O. selloi, as well as their chemical composition.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plant material

The leaves of of Vitex agnus-castus and Ocimum campechianum, and the inflorescences of Ocimum carnosum were collected in August 2016 from the Horto de Plantas Medicinais Professsor Francisco José de Abreu Matos (Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil). Plant materials were authenticated by Luiz Wilson Lima-Verde, and voucher specimens (#60102, #60105 and #60104) were deposited at the Herbário Prisco Bezerra (EAC), Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil.

Extraction of the essential oils

Fresh leaves of V. agnus-castus and O. campechianum, and fresh inflorescences of O. carnosum were subjected to hydrodistillation in a Cleavenger-type apparatus for 2 hours. The isolated oils, after drying over anhydrous sodium sulfate and filtration, were stored in sealed glass vials and maintained under refrigeration until further analysis. The yields (w/w) were calculated based on the fresh weight of the botanical material.

GC/MS and GC analysis of essential oils

GC analyses were performed using a GC-MS/FID (QP2010 Ultra, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan) equipped with an autosampler AOC-20i (Shimadzu). Separations were accomplished using a Rtx®-5MS Restek fused silica capillary column (5%-diphenyl–95%-dimethyl polysiloxane) of 30 m × 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 mm film thickness, at a constant helium (99.999%) flow rate of 1.2 mL/min. The essential oils were dissolved in ethyl acetate (5 mg/mL) and an injection volume of 0.5 μL was employed, with a split ratio of 1:10. The oven temperature was programmed from 50°C (isothermal for 1.5 min), with an increase of 4°C/min, to 200°C, then 10°C/min to 250°C, ending with a 5 min isothermal at 250°C.

The MS and FID data were simultaneously acquired employing a Detector Splitting System; the split flow ratio was 4:1 (MS:FID). A 0.62 m x 0.15 mm i.d. restrictor tube (capillary column) was used to connect the splitter to the MS detector; a 0.74 m x 0.22 mm i.d. restrictor tube was used to connect the splitter to the FID detector. The MS data (total ion chromatogram, TIC) were acquired in the full scan mode (m/z 40–350) at a scan rate of 0.3 scan/s using the electron ionization (EI) with an electron energy of 70 eV. The injector temperature was 250°C and the ion-source temperature was 250°C. The FID temperature was set to 250°C, and the gas supplies for the FID were hydrogen, air, and helium at flow rates of 30, 300, and 30 mL/min, respectively. Quantification of each constituent was estimated by FID peak-area normalization (%). Compound concentrations were calculated from the GC peak areas and they were arranged in order of GC elution.

Identification of essential oils constituents

The identification of individual components of the essential oils was performed by computerized matching of the acquired mass spectra with those stored in NIST21, NIST107 and WILEY8 mass spectral library of the GC-MS data system. A mixture of hydrocarbons (C9H20–C19H40) was injected under these same conditions and identification of constituents was then performed by comparing the spectra obtained with those of the equipment data bank and by the Kovats index, calculated for each constituent as previously described (AdamsADAMS RP. 2007. Identification of essential oil components by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. Carol Stream, Illinois: Allured Publishing Corporation, 804 p. 2007). Retention indices were obtained with equation proposed by van Den DoolDOOL HVD & KRATZ PD. 1963. A generalization of the retention index system including linear temperature programmed gas-liquid partition chromatography. J Chromatogr 1: 463-471. & Kratz (1963).

Larvicidal biossay

Aliquots of the essential oils tested (12.5 to 500 μg/mL) were placed in a beaker (50 mL) and dissolved in DMSO/H2O 1.5% (20 mL). Fifty instar III larvae of Ae. aegypti were delivered to each beaker. For each experiment, both positive (Temephos®) and negative (H2O/DMSO 1.5%) control assays were carried out in parallel. After 24 hours, at room temperature, the number of dead larvae was counted and the lethal percentage calculated. For each sample, 3 independent experiments were run (OliveiraOLIVEIRA MF, LEMOS TLG, DE MATTOS MC, SEGUNDO TA, SANTIAGO GMP & BRAZ-FILHO R. 2002. New enamine derivatives of lapachol and biological activity. An Acad Bras Cienc 74: 211-221. et al. 2002). Larvae of Ae. aegypti were collected from mosquito colonies maintained at NUVET – SESA (Núcleo de Controle de Endemias Transmissíveis por Vetor - Secretaria de Saúde do Estado do Ceará).

Cytotoxicity assay

The human tumor cell lines used were breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), lung carcinoma (NCI-H292), pro-myelocytic leukemia (HL-60), and cervical adenocarcinoma (HEP-2) which were obtained from the Banco de Células do Rio de Janeiro (RJ, Brazil). Cancer cells were maintained in RPMI 1640 medium or DMEN supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 2 mm/L glutamine, 100 U/mL penicillin, 100 μg/mL streptomycin at 37 °C with 5% CO2. The cytotoxic activities of essential oils were tested against four human tumor cell lines using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT; Sigma Aldrich Co., St. Louis, MO, USA) reduction assay (MosmannMOSMANN T. 1983. Rapid colorimetric assay for cellular growth and survival: application to proliferation and cytotoxicity assays. J Immunol Methods 65: 55-63. 1983). For all experiments, tumor cells were plated in 96-well plates (105 cells/mL for adherent cells or 3 x 105 cells/mL for leukemia). The essential oils dissolved in DMSO 1% were added to each well and incubated for 72 h. Control groups received the same amount of DMSO. The compound concentrations added to the cells ranged from 0.39 to 25.00 µg/mL. After 69 h of treatment, MTT (0.5 mg/mL) was added, three hours later, the MTT formazan product was dissolved in 100 μL of DMSO, and absorbance was measured at 570 nm in plate spectrophotometer (Varioskan Flask, Thermo Scientific). Doxorubicin was used as positive control. IC50 values and their 95% confidence intervals for two different experiments were obtained by non linear regression using Graphpad Prism version 5.0 for Windows (GraphPad Software, San Diego, California, USA).

RESULTS

Chemical analysis of the essential oils

The yields of essential oils obtained by the hydrodistillation of fresh leaves of V. agnus-castus and O. campechianum, and of fresh inflorescences of O. carnosum were 0.1%, 0.4% and 0.5% (w/w), respectively, in relation to the weight of the plant material. The chemical composition of the essential oils, including the retention index and the percentage relative of each constituent identified, is shown in Table I. The GC chromatograms of essential oils from the leaves of V. agnus-castus and O. campechianum, and from inflorescences of O. carnosum are presented in Figures 1, 2 and 3, respectively.

Table I
Chemical composition of essential oils of V. agnus-castus, O. campechianum and O. carnosum.
Figure 1
Chromatogram (CG-DIC) of essential oil from leaves of Vitex agnus-castus.
Figure 2
Chromatogram (CG-DIC) of essential oil from leaves of Ocimum campechianum.
Figure 3
Chromatogram (CG-DIC) of essential oil from inflorescences of Ocimum carnosum.

In the essential oil from leaves of V. agnus-castus, nine constituents were identified representing 100.0% of the total composition. The components of this essential oil were identified as 1,8-cineole (47.9%), terpinyl α-acetate (11.6%), sabinene (11.2%), caryophyllene oxide (9.7%), terpinen-4-ol (4.6%), (E)-caryophyllene (4.4%), spathulenol (4.4%), α-epi-cadinol (4.2%) and bicyclogermacrene (2.0%). The monoterpene and sesquiterpene fractions represent 75.3% and 24.7% of the oil, respectively.

Eight compounds, representing 100% of the essential oil from leaves of O. campechianum have been identified. Eugenol (72.1%), β-elemene (6.8%), (E)-caryophyllene (6.4%), bicyclogermacrene (5.2%), elimicine (4.1%), 1,8-cineole (2.9%), α-humulene (1.3%) and δ-elemene (1.2%) were the components. Phenylpropanoids (76.2%), sesquiterpenes (20.9%) and monoterpenes (2.9%) were found in this oil.

In the essential oil obtained from inflorescences of O. carnosum, eight constituents were identified. The components were linalool (79.0%), α-epi-cadinol (5.4%), terpinen-4-ol (3.2%), 1,8-cineole (2.8%), germacrene D (2.4%), α-trans-bergamotene (2.8%), fenchone (2.2%) and camphor (2.2%). This essential oil consists of 10.6% of sesquiterpenes and 89.4% of monoterpenes.

Larvicidal activity

Essential oils from leaves of V. agnus-castus and O. campechianum, and from inflorescences of O. carnosum were screened for their activity against instar III larvae of Ae. aegypti. The mortality percentages were calculated after 24 h. The larvicidal effects of tested essential oils against instar III Ae. aegypti larvae are shown in Table II. In our experiments, the mortality of larvae ranged from 100% to 0%, when Ae. aegypti larvae were treated with the tested essential oils (Table II). O,O’-(Thiodi-4,1-phenylene)bis(O,O-dimethyl phosphorothioate (Temephos®) was used as a positive control (LC50 1.4 + 0.2 μg/mL).

Table II
Larval mortality (%) of essential oils against third-instar of Aedes aegypti larvae.

Additional data on the toxicity of essential oils have been obtained by calculation of their LC50 values and, thus the essential oils obtained from leaves of V. agnus-castus and O. campechianum and from inflorescences of O. carnosum showed LC50 values of 97.55 ± 0.35, 81.45 ± 0.35 and 109.49 ± 0.35 μg/mL, respectively.

Cytotoxic activity

The essential oils from V. agnus-castus, O. campechianum and O. carnosum were submitted to the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay (Mosmann 1983) for the evaluation of their cytotoxic effects on breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), lung carcinoma (NCI-H292), pro-myelocytic leukemia (HL-60), and cervical adenocarcinoma (HEP-2) human cell lines (Table III). Doxorubicin was used as the positive control. The essential oils from V. agnus-castus, O. campechianum, O. carnosum were more active against pro-myelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cell lines with IC50 values of 3.8, 7.6, and 13.2 μg/mL, respectively (Table III).

Table III
Cytotoxic activity of essential oils.

DISCUSSION

Essential oils are obtained from aromatic plants, mainly by steam distillation or hydrodistillation. They are considered promising in the control of mosquitoes as Ae. aegypti because consist of a mixture of volatile substances with a variety of functional groups that can be toxic to insects (BakkaliBAKKALI F, AVERBECK S, AVERBECK D & IDAOMAR M. 2008. Biological effects of essencial oils – a review. Food Chem Toxicol 46: 446-475. et al. 2008, Dias & Moraes 2014). In the larvicidal activity of essential oils, the lipophilicity of their chemical constituents is associated with the percutaneous permeation of essential oils (El-KattanEL-KATTAN AF, ASBILL CS, KIM N & MICHNIAK BB. 2001. The effects of terpene enhancers on the percutaneous permeation of drugs with different lipophilicities. Int J Phar 215: 229-240. et al. 2001).

The large abundance of monoterpenoid compounds, mainly 1,8-cineole, in the leaf essential oil of V. agnus-castus is in accordance with previous findings (BorgesBORGES AR, AIRES JRA, HIGINO TMM, DE MEDEIROS MGF, CITÓ AMGL, LOPES JAD & DE FIGUEIREDO RCBQ. 2012. Trypanocidal and cytotoxic activities of essential oils from medicinal plants of Northeast of Brazil. Exp Parasitol 132: 123-128. et al. 2012, Dervishi-ShengjergjiDERVISHI-SHENGJERGJI D, PAPAJANI V, HAMITI X & NINGA E. 2014. Chemical composition of Albanian Vitex agnus castus L. leaves essential oils. Int J Ecosyst Ecol Sci 4: 633-636. et al. 2014, NevesNEVES RCS & DA CAMARA CAG. 2016. Chemical composition and acaricidal activity of the essential oils from Vitex agnus-castus L. (Verbenaceae) and selected monoterpenes. An Acad Bras Cienc 88: 1221-1233. & Da Camara 2016). It is important to note that only 9 constituents were identified in this essential oil, and this number is similar to that reported for other sample collected in the northeastern Brazil, which presented 11 constituents (Borges et al. 2012). Monoterpenes have been reported to display larvicidal and insecticidal activities (Santos et al. 2011, MichaelakisMICHAELAKIS A, VIDALI VP, PAPACHRISTOS DP, PITSINOS EN, KOLIOPOULOS G, COULADOUROS EA, POLISSIOU MG & KIMBARIS AC. 2014. Bioefficacy of acyclic monoterpenes and their saturated derivatives against the West Nile vector Culex pipiens. Chemosphere 96: 74-80. et al. 2014, LiuLIU Y, LIU XC, LIU QY, NIU C & LIU ZL. 2015. Larvicidal activity of Illicium difengpi BN Chang (Schisandraceae) stem bark and its constituent compounds against Aedes aegypti L. Trop J Pharm Res 14: 103-109. et al. 2015, PolatogluPOLATOGLU K, KARAKOÇ OC, YUCEL YY, GUCEL S, DEMIRCI B, DEMIRCI F & BASER KHC. 2017. Insecticidal activity of Salvia veneris Hedge. essential oil against coleopteran stored product insects and Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera). Ind Crops Prod 97: 93-100. et al. 2017). The constituents 1,8-cineole (AraújoARAÚJO ECC, SILVEIRA ER, LIMA MAS, ANDRADE NETO M, DE ANDRADE IL, LIMA MAA, SANTIAGO GMP & MESQUITA ALM. 2003. Insecticidal activity and chemical composition of volatile oils from Hyptis martiusii Benth. J Agric Food Chem 51: 3760-3762. et al. 2003, LuciaLUCIA A, AUDINO PG, SECCACINI E, LICASTRO S, ZERBA E & MASUH H. 2007. Larvicidal effect of Eucalyptus grandis essential oil and turpentine and their major components on Aedes aegypti larvae. J Am Mosq Control Assoc 23: 299-303. et al. 2007, ChengCHENG SS, HUANG CG, CHEN YJ, YU JJ, CHEN WJ & CHANG ST. 2009. Chemical compositions and larvicidal activities of leaf essential oils from two eucalyptus species. Bioresour Technol 100: 452-456. et al. 2009), terpinyl α-acetate (Cheng et al. 2009CHENG Y, DAI C & ZHANG J. 2017. SIRT3-SOD2-ROS pathway is involved in linalool-induced glioma cell apoptotic death. Acta Biochim Pol 64: 343-350., PandeyPANDEY SK, TANDON S, AHMAD A, SINGH AK & TRIPHATHI AK. 2013. Structure-activity of monoterpenes and acetyl derivatives against Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae. Pest Manag Sci 69: 1235-1238. et al. 2013), and sabinene (GovindarajanGOVINDARAJAN M. 2010. Chemical composition and larvicidal activity of leaf essential oil from Clausena anisata (Willd.) Hook. f. ex Benth (Rutaceae) against three mosquito species. Asian Pacific J Trop Med 3: 874-877. 2010, ChengCHENG SS, LIN C, CHUNG MJ, LIU Y, HUANG CG & CHANG ST. 2013. Larvicidal activities of wood and leaf essential oils and ethanolic extracts from Cunninghamia konishii Hayata against the dengue mosquitoes. Ind Crops Prod 47: 310-315. et al. 2013) have shown larvicidal or insecticidal activity against Ae. aegypti, and these constituents were detected in the essential oil from leaves of V. agnus-castus.

The presence of the phenylpropanoid eugenol in the essential oil from leaves of O. campechianum, as a major chemical constituent, is in accordance with previous reports (Sacchetti et al. 2004, Silva et al. 2004, Trevisan et al. 2006, VieiraVIEIRA PRN, DE MORAIS SM, BEZERRA FHQ, FERREIRA PAT, OLIVEIRA IR & SILVA MGV. 2014. Chemical composition and antifungal activity of essential oil from Ocimum species. Ind Crops Prod 55: 267-271. et al. 2014). Earlier investigations into the essential oils of this species growing in the same place, under same conditions, have found similar chemical composition (Silva et al. 2004, Trevisan et al. 2006, Vieira et al. 2014). It is generally admitted that the major constituents determine the biological properties of the essential oils (RiellaRIELLA KR, MARINHO RR, SANTOS JS, PEREIRA-FILHO RN, CARDOSO JC, ALBUQUERQUE-JUNIOR RLC & THOMAZZI SM. 2012. Anti-inflammatory and cicatrizing activities of thymol, a monoterpene of the essential oil from Lippia gracilis, in rodents. J Ethnopharmacol 143: 656-663. et al. 2012, Dias & Moraes 2014). In this way, the larvicidal effect of this essential oil can be attributed to eugenol, which has been reported to exhibit activity against Ae. aegypti larvae (Walıwıtıya et al. 2009, BarbosaBARBOSA JDF, SILVA VB, ALVES PB, GUMINA G, SANTOS RLC, SOUSA DP & CAVALCANTI SCH. 2012. Structure-activity relationships of eugenol derivatives against Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae. Pest Manag Sci 68: 1478-1483. et al. 2012, MedeirosMEDEIROS ES, RODRIGUES IB, LITAIFF-ABREU E, PINTO ACS & TADEI WP. 2013. Larvicidal activity of clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) extracts and eugenol against Aedes aegypti and Anopheles darlingi. Afr J Biotechnol 12: 836-840. et al. 2013, Dias & Moraes 2014, FayemiwoFAYEMIWO KA, ADELEKE MA, OKORO OP, AWOJIDE SH & AWONIYI IO. 2014. Larvicidal efficacies and chemical composition of essential oils of Pinus sylvestris and Syzygium aromaticum against mosquitoes. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 4: 30-34. et al. 2014).

In the present study, the major constituent identified in the essential oil from inflorescences of O. carnosum was linalool (79.0%), whereas the literature reports methyl chavicol (92.5%) and methyl eugenol (66.2%) from two different accessions (MartinsMARTINS ER, CASALI VWD, BARBOSA LCA & CARAZZA F. 1997. Essential oil in the taxonomy of Ocimum selloi Benth. J Braz Chem Soc 8: 29-32. et al. 1997), trans-anethole (41.3%) and methyl chavicol (27.1%) (MoraesMORAES LAS, FACANALI R, MARQUES MOM, MING LC & MEIRELES MAA. 2002. Phytochemical characterization of essential oil from Ocimum selloi. An Acad Bras Cienc 74: 183-186. et al. 2002), as the major constituents. The variations in the chemical composition may be related with chemotypes for the same species or as a result of factors such as temperature, soil type, climate, and developmental and physiological differences (NascimentoNASCIMENTO JC, BARBOSA LCA, PAUL, VF, DAVID JM, FONTANA R, SILVA LAM & FRANÇA RS. 2011. Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oils of Ocimum canum Sims. and Ocimum selloi Benth.. An Acad Bras Cienc 83: 787-799. et al. 2011, Fayemiwo et al. 2014). The essential oil of O. carnosum, which has linalool as the major constituent, exhibited larvicidal activity, with LC50 value of 109.49 ± 0.35 μg/mL. In previous studies, JantanJANTAN IB, YALVEMA MF, AHMAD NW & JAMAL JA. 2005. Insecticidal activities of the leaf oils of eight Cinnamomum species against Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Pharm Biol 43: 526-532. et al. (2005), Pandey et al. (2013) and Fujiwara et al. (2017) evaluated the larvicidal activity of linalool against Ae. aegypti, and observed LC50 values of 157.4, 242.6 and 275.2 μg/mL, respectively. Therefore, it is possible that other constituents of the essential oil work synergistically with linalool.

Among the essential oils evaluated against Ae. aegypti larvae, the leaf essential oil of O. campechianum was the most active with LC50 value of 81.45 ± 0.35 μg/mL, and generally, all phenylpropanoid-rich essential oils exhibited larvicidal activity (Dıas & Moraes 2014).

The cytotoxic activity of 1,8-cineole (MotekiMOTEKI H, HIBASAMI H, YAMADA Y, KATSUZAKI H, IMAI K & KOMIYA T. 2002. Specific induction of apoptosis by 1,8-cineole in two human leukemia cell lines, but not a in human stomach cancer cell line. Oncol Rep 9: 757-760. et al. 2002, Sampath et al. 2017), eugenol (RajputRAJPUT JD, BAGUL SD, PETE UD, ZADE CM, PADHYE SB & BENDRE RS. 2017. Perspectives on medicinal properties of natural phenolic monoterpenoids and their hybrids. Mol Divers 22(1): 225-245. et al. 2017, FangjunFANGJUN L & ZHIJIA Y. 2018. Tumor suppressive roles of eugenol in human lung cancer cells. Thorac Cancer 9: 25-29. & Zhijia 2018), and linalool (ChengCHENG Y, DAI C & ZHANG J. 2017. SIRT3-SOD2-ROS pathway is involved in linalool-induced glioma cell apoptotic death. Acta Biochim Pol 64: 343-350. et al. 2017, AprotosoaieAPROTOSOAIE AC, HANCIANU M, COSTACHE II & MIRON A. 2014. Linalool: a review on a key odorant molecule with valuable biological properties. Flavour Frag J 29: 193-219. et al. 2014), major constituents in V. Agnus-castus, O. campechianum and O. carnosum essential oils, respectively, has been shown in previous studies. Therefore, it is possible that these constituents of the essential oils work synergistically to produce the cytotoxic activity of tested essential oils.

CONCLUSIONS

The results obtained show that the essential oils, especially that obtained from leaves of O. campechiamum could be considered as natural larvicidal agents. With respect to cytotoxic activity, pro-myelocytic leukemia cells lines (HL-60) were found to be the most sensitive to all the essential oils tested than the others. These findings indicate that that the differences in the activities of the essential oils were related to their chemical composition.

ACKNOWLEGMENTS

The authors thank the Brazilian agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), FUNCAP, PRONEX for fellowships and financial support, and Laboratório de Entomologia, Núcleo de Controle de Vetores do Ceará, Secretaria de Saúde do Estado do Ceará, Brazil, where the larvicidal bioassays were performed.

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    17 Apr 2020
  • Date of issue
    2020

History

  • Received
    7 June 2018
  • Accepted
    13 Nov 2018
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