Anti-inflammatory and cancer chemopreventive potential of essential oils from some cultivated plants in Egypt.

This study aimed to investigate the biological activity of essential oils (EOs) of Artemisia abrotanum, Lavandula dentata, Cymbopogon citratus and Laurus nobilis as anti-inflammatory and cancer chemopreventive activities. The anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated using lipopolysaccharides-induced nitric oxide (NO) inhibition on murine macrophage cells (RAW264.7) and cancer chemo-preventive influence was assessed in vitro utilizing Hepa1c1c7 murine carcinoma cells. The EO of A. abrotanum has the most potential activity toward inhibition of NO release, recording 96.6 ± 0.1%, as estimated by Greiss assay. Followed by EOs of L. dentata and L. nobilis with 63.6 ± 0.11 and 37.0 ± 0.23%, respectively. At the protein expression level, western blotting technique was used to evaluate the expression of iNOS. The EO of A. abrotanum at 100 µg/ml exhibited a very high impact on inhibiting iNOS expression, followed by EOs of L. dentata and L. nobilis. On the other hand, pre-screening concentration (100 µg/ml) revealed that the EOs of L. dentata and A. abrotanum have moderate potency to induce expression of chemo-preventive marker NQO1. The results revealed that the EO of A. abrotanum had strong anti-inflammatory activity. While the EOs of L. dentata and A. abrotanum have moderate potency to induce cancer chemoprevention.