Therapeutic index of M. verticillata essential oil and its major components: relation between anti-herpetic capacity and toxicity in hep-2 cells

VOGT M.V.; SUTIL S.; TORRES C.; ESCOBAR F.; ZANON S.; SABINI L.

Villa Giardino, Córdoba

Jornada; XV Jornadas de Biología; 2005

Minthostachys verticillata (peperina) has great application in the Córdoba folkloric medicine. The aerial parts have been used for the treatment of different diseases. Recently, many studies have been focused on the scientific evaluation of its antimicrobial properties, particulary the exhaustive analysis of its essential oil (EO) antiviral capacity. The determination of the Therapeutic Index (TI) of this vegetal sample and its majority components now deserves the attention to infer their potential applicability. It was used Her¬pes suis type 1 virus propagated in HEp-2 cells monolayers in the presence of the oily samples at non toxic concentrations. The anti¬viral action was quantified by reduction of the number of the lysis plaques after incubation by 72 h at 37C. The same cellular support was used for the evaluation of the EO and its major components cytotoxic capacities at different concentrations (0,01-1,60 mg/ml) after 72 h of incubation at 37C. The MTT assay was performed and cytotoxic concentrations 50% (CC50%) was determined by linear regression (Seth et al., 2004). The CC50% of each oily sample vs antiviral concentrations 50% was related to obtain the TI. The main components of the EO, in decreasing order of toxicity were: pulegone, menthone and limonene, CC50%: 352, 835 and 1155 µg/ml respectively vs CC50% of the EO: 613 ug/ml. The antiviral action was only exerted by pulegone and the EO at concentrations 20 and 30 lower than the cytotoxic concentrations. Thus, high therapeutic index of these compounds suggests that they would have great applicability due to their selective toxicity.