J Appl Biomed 18:126-135, 2020 | DOI: 10.32725/jab.2020.016

The effects of Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oil and its nanoemulsion on dyslipidemic Wistar rats

Ana Paula Santos Rodrigues^1,2, Belmira Silva Faria e Souza¹, Albenise Santana Alves Barros^1,3, Helison de Oliveira Carvalho^1,3, Jonatas Lobato Duarte^1,2, Letícia Elizandra Mehl Boettger^2,6, Robson Barbosa^2,6, Adriana Maciel Ferreira¹, Irlon Maciel Ferreira^2,3,4, Caio Pinho Fernandes^2,5, Arlindo César Matias Pereira¹, José Carlos Tavares Carvalho^1,2,3,*

¹ Universidade Federal do Amapá, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Curso de Farmácia, Laboratório de Pesquisa em Fármacos, Macapá, Amapá, Brasil

² Universidade Federal do Amapá, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Macapá, Amapá, Brasil

³ Universidade Federal do Amapá, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Programa de Pós-graduação em Inovação Farmacêutica, Macapá, Amapá, Brasil

⁴ Universidade Federal do Amapá, Curso de Química, Laboratório de Biocatálise e Biotransformação em Química Orgânica, Macapá, Amapá, Brasil

⁵ Universidade Federal do Amapá, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Curso de Farmácia, Laboratório de Nanobiotecnologia Fitofarmacêutica, Macapá, Amapá, Brasil

⁶ Universidade Federal do Amapá, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Curso de Farmácia, Laboratório de Bioquímica e Citologia Clínica, Macapá, Amapá, Brasil

Dyslipidemias are lipid metabolism alterations that cause increased levels of serum lipoprotein, cholesterol, and triglycerides. These alterations are associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases and are a risk factor for atherosclerosis development. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Rosmarinus officinalis essential oil (EORO, 100 mg/kg) and its nanoemulsion (NEORO, 500 µg/kg) on Triton and coconut saturated-fat-induced (CSF) dyslipidemias using Wistar rats. The phytochemical evaluation of EORO performed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) revealed 1,8-cineole (33.70%), camphor (27.68%), limonene (21.99%), and α-pinene (8.13%) as its major compounds. Triton-induced dyslipidemia significantly increased total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides levels. On the other hand, the groups treated with EORO and NEORO had significantly reduced total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides compared to the group treated only with Triton. Similar results were observed on the positive control treated with simvastatin. Dyslipidemia induced with coconut saturated-fat (CSF) caused abdominal fat gain, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, increased LDL levels, and atherogenesis in the aorta. In contrast, the groups treated with EORO, NEORO, and simvastatin had significantly reduced hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia, reduced abdominal fat gain, and absence of atherogenesis in the vascular endothelium. Overall, in the Triton-induced dyslipidemia model, EORO treatment had superior values than NEORO's (and simvastatin), although the differences were not too high, while in the CSF model, the values were mixed. In this manner, our results show an anti-dyslipidemic and anti-atherogenic activity effect by EORO and NEORO.

Keywords: Anti-atherogenic; Anti-dyslipidemic; Essential oil; Nanoemulsion; Rosmarinus officinalis

Grants and funding:

The authors would like to thank CAPES (no 3292/2013 AUXPE), CNPq Proc. 402332/2013-0 and FAPEAP (No 003/2018 – Programa de Pesquisa para o SUS/FAPEAP/MS-DECIT/CNPq/ SESA-AP) for the financial support and Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Amapá – FAPEAP for the APSR scholarship.

Conflicts of interest:

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Received: March 21, 2019; Revised: October 1, 2020; Accepted: November 3, 2020; Prepublished online: November 6, 2020; Published: December 14, 2020  Show citation