Antibacterial, Anti-Inflammatory, Antioxidant, and Antiproliferative Properties of Essential Oils from Hairy and Normal Roots of Leonurus sibiricus L. and Their Chemical Composition

Hindawi Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity Volume 2017, Article ID 7384061, 12 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7384061 Research Article Antibacterial, Anti-Inflammatory, Antioxidant, and Antiproliferative Properties of Essential Oils from Hairy and Normal Roots of Leonurus sibiricus L. and Their Chemical Composition PrzemysBaw Sitarek,1 Patricia Rijo,2,3 Catarina Garcia,2 Ewa SkaBa,1 Danuta Kalemba,4 Adam J. BiaBas,5 Janusz Szemraj,6 Dariusz Pytel,7 Monika Toma,8 Halina WysokiNska,1 and Tomasz UliwiNski8 1 Department of Biology and Pharmaceutical Botany, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Center for Research in Biosciences & Health Technologies (CBIOS), Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal 3 Instituto de Investigação do Medicamento (iMed.ULisboa), Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal 4 Institute of General Food Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland 5 Department of Pneumology and Allergy, 1st Chair of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland 6 Department of Medical Biochemistry, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland 7 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina, Hollings Cancer Center, HCC-709, 86 Jonathan Lucas Street, Charleston, SC 29425, USA 8 Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland 2 Correspondence should be addressed to Przemysław Sitarek; Received 23 September 2016; Accepted 7 December 2016; Published 16 January 2017 Academic Editor: Chung-Yen Oliver Chen Copyright © 2017 Przemysław Sitarek et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Essential oils obtained from the NR (normal roots) and HR (hairy roots) of the medicinal plant Leonurus sibiricus root were used in this study. The essential oil compositions were detected by GC-MS. Eighty-five components were identified in total. Seventy components were identified for NR essential oil. The major constituents in NR essential oil were 𝛽-selinene (9.9%), selina-4,7-diene (9.7%), (E)-𝛽-caryophyllene (7.3%),myli-4(15)-ene (6.4%), and guaia-1(10),11-diene (5.9%). Sixty-seven components were identified in HR essential oil, the main constituents being (E)-𝛽-caryophyllene (22.6%), and germacrene D (19.8%). The essential oils were tested for cytotoxic effect, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. Both essential oils showed activity against grade IV glioma cell lines (IC50 = 400 𝜇g/mL), antimicrobial (MIC and MFC values of 2500 to 125 𝜇g/mL), and anti-inflammatory (decreased level of IL-1𝛽, IL-6, TNF-𝛼, and IFN-𝛾 in LPS-stimulated cells).The essential oils exhibited moderate antioxidant activity in ABTS (EC50 = 98 and 88 𝜇g/mL) assay. This is the first study to examine composition of the essential oils and their antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiproliferative, and anti-inflammatory activities. The results indicate that essential oils form L. sibiricus root may be used in future as an alternative to synthetic antimicrobial agents with potential application in the food and pharmaceutical industries. 1. Introduction For millennia, plants have held great economic value, not only by playing a significant role in the food supply but also by acting as therapeutic agents [1]. Interest has recently grown in the application of plants as medicinal agents since several side effects have been found to be associated with synthetic drugs. Plants are known to have therapeutic ability 2 and contribute to reducing the risk of various inflammatory conditions and cancers and are the most important global source of drugs; about 50 percent of drugs produced in the world are of natural origin [2]. According to the World Health Organization, about 80% of people rely on traditional remedies such as herbal drugs, which are found in many modern medicinal formulations. Many naturally occurring agents in plant extracts or oils have shown antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory potential in several animal models and bioassay systems and have an effect on human disease [3–6]. One particularly interesting group of compounds are the essential oils obtained from various parts of plants. Although essential oils only represent a small fraction of plant’s composition, they nevertheless confer the characteristics by which aromatic plants are used in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries [7]. The antioxidant activity of essential oils is another biological property of great interest because they may preserve foods from the toxic effects of oxidants [8]. Moreover, their free radical scavenging ability may play an important role in some diseases’ prevention such as brain dysfunction, cancer, heart disease, and immune system decline [9, 10]. One plant which shows a broad spectrum of biological activity is Leonurus sibiricus L. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that the active components in various parts of Leonurus sibiricus possess a wide range of pharmacological activities, with effects on the uterus, as well as bestowing more general cardioprotective, antioxidative, anticancer, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and antibacterial effects [11–14]. Earlier studies have demonstrated the anticancer and antioxidant activities of various parts of this plant [15]. The most interesting results for extract of Leonurus sibiricus were obtained for in vitro culture transformed and normal roots [16]. Literature data shows that transformation of the roots can encourage the production of valuable secondary metabolites [17]. Therefore, the present study was carried out to evaluate the antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiproliferative activities and identify the chemical profile of essential oils from L. sibiricus normal and hairy roots. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Plant Material of L. sibiricus Roots. In this study, normal (NR) and hairy roots (HR) of L. sibiricus were tested. The hairy roots were obtained by infection of five-week-old in vitro shoots of L. sibiricus with Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain A4. Establishment of hairy root (HR) cultures has been described previously by Sitarek et al. [15]. 2.2. Isolation and Analysis of Essential Oils. The essential oils of NR and HR roots (about 50 g of each) were obtained by hydrodistillation, using a clevenger-type apparatus for 5 h. Chemical analysis of essential oils composition was performed by GC-MS method according to Makowczyńska et al. [18]. Apparatus details are as follows: Trace GC Ultra with FID and MS DSQ II detector and MS-FID splitter, with column Rtx-1 ms (Restek), 60 m × 0.25 mm i.d., and Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity film thickness 0.25 𝜇m; temperature program, 50–310∘ C at 2∘ C/min; injector temp. 280∘ C; FID temp. 300∘ (...truncated)