By Péricles B. Alves, Pedro S. Freire Filho, Valéria R.S. Moraes, Arie F. Blank, José L.S. de Carvalho Filho, Maria de F. Arrigoni-Blank, Glaucius Oliva and Otávio H. Thiemann
Abstract: Abstract: The leaf essential oils of seven Ocimum basilicum L. accessions were analyzed by a combination of GC and GC/MS. They were tested for cytotoxicity using brine shrimp lethality test and for their ability to inhibit the enzymatic activity of the glycossomal glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) from Trypanosoma cruzi and adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) from Leishmania tarentolae. The oils showed significant activity (LC50 < 90 μg/mL) in the Brine shrimp lethality test. However, all samples did not show relevant inhibitory activity against GAPDH and APRT. Key Word Index: Ocimum basilicum, Lamiaceae, Brine shrimp lethality test, Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania tarentolae, essential oil composition, linalool, methyl chavicol, methyl eugenol, geraniol, α-muurolol.
Plant Name
Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae).
Source
The leaves of Ocimum basilicum L. were collected from the Germoplasm Bank of Ocimum from the Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristovão, Sergipe, Brazil (1).
Plant Part
The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation of 75 g of dry leaves and flowers harvested at full bloom, for 2 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus, from the leaves of genotypes Ames7772 (yield: 0.467%), PI358466 (0.407%), PI368700 (1.03%), NSL6421 (0.692%), PI207498 (0.327%), PI253157 (0.330%), PI296390 (0.769%).
Previous Work
The sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) has several culinary, ornamental, medicinal and aromatic uses. Ocimum basilicum has been used in the treatment of acne, fevers, throat congestions, stomachache, headaches, coughs, diarrhea, constipation, warts, worms, insect bites, and kidney malfunctions. It has also exhibited diuretic, appetite stimulant, insecticidal, antibacterial and antifungal properties (2–12).
To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the oil composition and biological activities of these O. basilicum L. genotypes.
