Planta Med 2010; 76 - P237
DOI: 10.1055/s-0030-1264535

Potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in Teucrium salviastrum Schreb.

C Cabral 1, V Francisco 2, M Cruz 3, M Lopes 3, L Salgueiro 4, F Sales 1, M Batista 4
  • 1Centro de Estudos Farmacêuticos, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000–548 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 2Faculdade de Farmácia, Centro de Estudos Farmacêuticos and Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, Universidade de Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000–548 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 3Faculdade de Farmácia and Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, Universidade de Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000–548 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 4Faculdade de Farmácia and Centro de Estudos Farmacêuticos, Universidade de Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000–548 Coimbra, Portugal

Teucrium salviastrum Schreb. (Lamiaceae) is an endemic species from central and northern highlands of Portugal occurring usually in areas above 1.000m [1]. Teucrium spp. have been widely used as medicinal herbs and the biological activities of some species were already studied [2,3]. Here, for the first time, the phenolic composition of T. salviastrum extracts was determined, and their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities were assessed in vitro. Aerial parts of the plant were pulverized and extracted successively with dichloromethane, ethanol and 50% aqueous ethanol. Total phenols were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method. Extracts were screened for their antioxidant activity using the 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging method. The anti-inflammatory activity was assessed by the Griess method, evaluating the nitric oxide (NO) production, in the macrophage cell line Raw264.7 stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). HPLC-PDA-ESI/tandem MS was performed to obtain the phenolic profiles of the extracts. The DPPH method revealed that the ethanolic and hydro-alcoholic extracts are good free radical-scavengers. Additionally, these extracts inhibited LPS-induced macrophage NO production, a well known marker of the inflammatory processes. Relevant results were obtained for the ethanolic and hydro-alcoholic extracts, which showed, respectively, 0.175 and 0.095g of total phenols expressed in gallic acid equivalent/1g dry extract, which were, for most part, constituted by phenolic acid derivatives and a luteolin derivative. These results suggest that both ethanolic and hydro-alcoholic extracts of T. salviastrum have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities which could be related to the phenolic compounds and that the species has potential medicinal properties.

Acknowledgements: To QREN, Mais Centro Eixo 4– Protecção e Valorização Ambiental for financial support and LEM/UC integrated in RNEM of Portugal for the HPLC/MS analyses.

References: 1. Cavaleiro, C. et al. (2002) Flavour Fragr. J. 17: 287–291.

2. Sharififar, F. et al. (2009) Food Chem. 112: 885–888.

3. Abdollahi, M. et al. (2003) Pharm. Res. 48: 31–35.