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. 2022 May 20;22(1):142.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-022-03583-4.

Chemical composition, antibiofilm, cytotoxic, and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities of Myrtus communis L. leaves essential oil

Lucia Caputo  1 , Francesca Capozzolo  1 , Giuseppe Amato  1 , Vincenzo De Feo  2   3 , Florinda Fratianni  4 , Giovanni Vivenzio  1 , Filomena Nazzaro  4
Affiliations

Chemical composition, antibiofilm, cytotoxic, and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities of Myrtus communis L. leaves essential oil

Lucia Caputo et al. BMC Complement Med Ther. .

Abstract

Background: The potential of essential oils (EOs) and of their principal constituents for eradication of biofilm and at the same time the research of new potential acetylcholinesterase inhibitors is gaining increasing interest in last years. The aims of this study were to determine the chemical composition and to evaluate the antibacterial, cytotoxic, and anti-acetylcholinesterase properties of Myrtus communis leaves essential oil and its main constituents.

Methods: Essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation of M. communis L. leaves and was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The antimicrobial activity was carried out against both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The microdilution method was used to estimate the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). Then, the capacity of essential oil and its main constituent to inhibit biofilm growth, with the method of O'Toole and Kolterand, and the metabolic activity of biofilm cells through the MTT colorimetric method were evaluated at different times. Moreover, was studied the potential cytotoxic activity against SH-SY5Y cell line with MTT assay and the anti-acetylcholinesterase activity using Ellman's assay.

Results: Myrtenyl-acetate, 1,8 cineole, α-pinene, and linalool were the main components in the EO. The myrtle EO, at the minimum tested dose (0.4 mg/ml), inhibited S. aureus biofilm by 42.1% and was capable of inhibiting the biofilm cell metabolism in all tested strains, except Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, the EO showed good cytotoxic and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities IC50 of 209.1 and 32.8 μg/ml, respectively.

Conclusions: The results suggest that myrtle EO and its main constituents could be used as possible products that could act against the resistant pathogenic species E. coli, P. aeruginosa, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus, on the other hand, as possible coadjutants in the treatment of neurological diseases.

Keywords: Anti-acetylcholinesterase activity; Antibacterial activity; Biofilm; Biofilm metabolism; Cytotoxic activity; Essential oil; Myrtus communis; SH-SY5Y cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
GC–MS chromatogram of the leaves essential oil of M. communis L
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cell viability calculated as percentage after MTT assay. Cells were treated with different concentrations (500–25 μg/ml) of M. communis essential oil, myrtenyl-acetate, α-pinene, 1,8 cineole and linalool for 24 h and solvent (DMSO, 0.1%) alone. Data are the mean ± SD of three experiments *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, **** p < 0.0001 vs. DMSO
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Dose-dependent inhibitory activity of M. communis EO, myrtenyl-acetate, α-pinene and 1,8 cineole against AChE. Data are given as mean ± SD (n = 3). *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** p < 0.0001 vs. Galantamine
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