title: Anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of Tagetes minuta essential oil in activated macrophages.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of Tagetes minuta (T. minuta) essential oil.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the present study T. minuta essential oil was obtained from leaves of T. minuta via hydro-distillation and then was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The anti-oxidant capacity of T. minuta essential oil was examined by measuring reactive oxygen, reactive nitrogen species and hydrogen peroxide scavenging. The anti-inflammatory activity of T. minuta essential oil was determined through measuring NADH oxidase, inducible nitric oxide synthase and TNF-α mRNA expression in lipopolysacharide-stimulated murine macrophages using real-time PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis indicated that the main components in the T. minuta essential oil were dihydrotagetone (33.86%), E-ocimene (19.92%), tagetone (16.15%), cis-β-ocimene (7.94%), Z-ocimene (5.27%), limonene (3.1%) and epoxyocimene (2.03%). The T. minuta essential oil had the ability to scavenge all reactive oxygen/reactive nitrogen species radicals with IC50 12-15 µg/mL, which indicated a potent radical scavenging activity. In addition, T. minuta essential oil significantly reduced NADH oxidase, inducible nitric oxide synthaseand TNF-α mRNA expression in the cells at concentrations of 50 µg/mL, indicating a capacity of this product to potentially modulate/diminish immune responses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  T. minuta essential oil has radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory activities and could potentially be used as a safe effective source of natural anti-oxidants in therapy against oxidative damage and stress associated with some inflammatory conditions.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Institute, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71441-65186, Iran.
authors.forename: Parastoo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karimian
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Institute, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71441-65186, Iran.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kavoosi
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Autoimmune Disease Research Center and Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Amirghofran
keywords: Anti-inflammatory; Antioxidant; Essential oil; Macrophages; Tagetes minuta