Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities of lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) leaf extract

Sun-Yup Shim; Ji-Hyun Kim; Kang-Hee Kho; Mina Lee

doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2020.01.018

Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities of lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) leaf extract

Toxicol Rep. 2020 Jan 27:7:277-281. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2020.01.018. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Sun-Yup Shim¹, Ji-Hyun Kim², Kang-Hee Kho¹, Mina Lee³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Aqualife Science, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Chonnam National University, 50, Daehak-Ro, Yeosu, Jeonanm 59626, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Food and Nutrition, Sunchon National University, Suncheon, Jeonnam 57922, Republic of Korea.
³ College of Pharmacy, Sunchon National University, Suncheon, Jeonnam 57922, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

In this present study, we examined the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of alcoholic lemon myrtle extract (LME). The total polyphenol and flavonoid content of LME were determined as 118.77 and 14.53 mg/g extract, respectively. LME showed anti-oxidative properties, such as 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenz-thiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activity. The anti-inflammatory activities of LME were investigated using the lipopolysaccharide-stimulated murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. Pretreatment with LME was performed at non-cytotoxic concentrations of 10-100 μg/mL. LME inhibited the production of inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) revealed that pretreatment with LME suppressed the protein expression and mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in a concentration-dependent manner, respectively. These results suggest that LME could be used as a potential therapeutic agent having potent anti-inflammatory effects that could be used to treat inflammatory bowel disease.

Keywords: ABTS; DPPH; IL-6; Lemon myrtle; RAW 264.7; TNF-α.