THE EFFECT OF ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY, CYTOTOXICITY, AND INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINE PRODUCTION OF ELEVEN ESSENTIAL OILS

Sang Nam Park,a, Yong Lim,a, Un Kyu Park, Ji Hye Oh, Man Kyu Huh* and Seock-Yeon Hwang*

ABSTRACT

Essential oils are complex mixtures of several components endowed with a wide range of biological activities. The objectives of this study were to chemically characterize and evaluate the antioxidant activity, cytotoxicity, and inflammatory cytokine production of eleven essential oils. Cypress, Pine, and Japanese polyunsaturated oil had about 90-110% of the elimination ability of free radical scavenging ability. Cypress oil showed about 80% concentration of NO decrease compared to the control. Lavender, Japanese whites, and Korean whitening oil reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) by about 50%. Cypress and lavender oil showed low cytotoxicity and limonene oil showed about 70% cytotoxicity. Eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, mint oil, and limonene were decreased LPS-induced IL-1β production. At 1 ‰ concentration of essential oil, eucalyptus, lavender, mint, pine sylvestris, paddy pollen, Japanese whitening, and Korean whitening oil decreased to more than 50% LPS-induced IL-6 production. Cypress, eucalyptus, limonene oil, pine Siberian, pine, Japanese honeybee, and Korean oleaceous oil at 0.1‰ have about 50% of inhibition LPS-induced TNF-α production.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, cytotoxicity, essential oils, inflammatory cytokine production.