Antioxidant, antimicrobial and in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of Betonica officinalis and Salvia officinalis extracts

The interest in many medicinal herbs and plant food supplements, as a source of nutritional antioxidants, is determined by the antioxidant's role in health and disease control. Betonica officinalis L. (syn. Stachys officinalis; fam. Lamiaceae), have been used in European folk medicine to treat inflammatory diseases, pain and wound healing [1]. Salvia officinalis L. (fam. Lamiaceae) have been used in traditional medicine for the relief of pain, protecting the body against oxidative stress, free radical damages, angiogenesis, bacterial and virus infection [1,2]. This study investigated the antioxidant, antimicrobial and in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of B. officinalis and S. officinalis alcoholic extracts. The antioxidant activity was determined by two complementary methods: DPPH and ABTS assays [3, 4]. B. officinalis extract showed a higher antioxidant activity than S. officinalis extract in both antioxidant assays. Antimicrobial activity against typed strains of Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans has been investigated by diffusimetric method. Results showed that alcoholic extract of S. officinalis have the highest antibacterial activity against all strains. B. officinalis extract showed moderate activity against B. subtilis and P. aeruginosa, but did not show any activity against other strains. Anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts was evaluated by two assays: protein denaturation method and cyclooxygenase (COX-1) inhibition. It was found that S. officinalis extracts exert high anti-inflammatory effect in vitro (COX-1 IC₅₀ 19.1 ± 0.8 µg/ml), while B. officinalis exert a moderate anti-inflammatory effect (COX-1 IC₅₀ 49.2 ± 1.2 µg/ml). Our study, for the first time, revealed the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities of the herb B. officinalis. This study suggests that B. officinalis and S. officinalis may be considered as an important source of antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and wound healing agents.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNDI-UEFISCDI, project no. PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013 – 4-0034.

Keywords: Betonica officinalis, Salvia officinalis, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory.

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