Characterization of Essential Oils from Medicinal Plants and Assessment of Their Antimutagenic Effects Using Ames Salmonella/Microsomal Test

Abstract

We investigated the antimutagenic activities and chemical compositionsof essential oil (EO) from Melissa officinalis, Lavandula angustifolia and Origanum onites plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family. The chemical compositions of the plants were determined by GC/MS analysis and Ames assay was used in antimutagenic activity analysis. Citral, linalool, thymol and terpinenes were the major components in the EOs of M. officinalis, L. angustifolia and O. onites. In Ames assay, it was determined that the EO of M. officinalis had strong antimutagenic effects at all concentrations except for the highest concentrations on Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and 100 strains. L. angustifolia EO showed moderate antimutagenic activity against the Sodium azide (NaN3) mutagen, and reduced mutant colonies with 25.40% inhibition effect in the S. typhimurium TA100 strain at only 0.1 μl/plate concentration. Furthermore, L. angustifolia EO indicated strong antimutagenic activity against both 4-Nitro-o-phenylendiamine (NPD) and NaN3 mutagens in the S. typhimurium TA98 and 100 strains at 0.5 and 1 μl/plate concentrations. It was determined that the EO of O. onites had a moderate antimutagenic effect at the lowest concentration and a strong antimutagenic effect at all other concentrations on S. typhimurium TA98 strain. The 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 μl/plate concentrations of EO of O. onites showed strong antimutagenic effect against S. typhimurium TA100 strain. The present study demonstrated that EOs of M. officinalis, L. angustifolia and O. onites possesses antimutagenic activity on the S. typhimurium TA98 and 100 strains.