Investigation of Pharmacological Activity of the Pharmaceutical Forms from Summer Savory (Satureja Hortensis) Leaves Essential Oil

Taking into account the rich content of the plant compounds with anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial effects, the development of herbal pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pathological conditions accompanied by inflammation, pain and infections, remains one of the important tasks of pharmacy considering serious side effects of synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs and resistance to antimicrobial drugs as well.

Lamiaceae family plants are an important source for the essential oils and contain compounds with anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity. That is why for developing new medicines of herbal origin with the above-mentioned effects pharmaceutical forms based on essential oil of summer savory growing in Armenia were obtained and their anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antimicrobial activities and wound-healing effect were studied.

The analysis of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry combined method indicates, that investigated essential oil, separated by steam distillation, contains high quantity of aromatic mono and diterpenes with the prevalence of carvacrol (42.3%) and gamma-terpinene (32%). The medicinal raw material of summer savory leaves growing in Armenia have been identified preliminarily by light microscopy, and by the residual moisture detection (9.5%).

The anti-inflammatory activity of the essential oil was studied on rats’ ear by xylene induced acute inflammation model. It revealed that this essential oil possesses anti-inflam­ma­tory activity among all the tested doses i.e. 20, 50 and 100 mg/kg (i/p), especially in 20 mg/kg dose, preventing the development of edema by 50.5%. The mentioned activity was confirmed by estimation of histological changes of inflamed tissue, indicating the ability of 10% ointment of the essential oil to prevent changes observed in the inflammation area. 

Evaluation of antinociceptive activity of summer savory essential oil in indicated doses was performed by "Tail-flick" test of rats’ tail thermal stimulation. Registration of rat tail withdrawing latent time demonstrated that the essential oil possesses expressed antinociceptive activity, which is pronounced in case of emulsified oil i/p injection in 50 mg/kg dose, at which the rat tail withdrawal latent time was increased by 95.8%.

Investigation of summer savory essential oil antimicrobial activity in vitro conditions by the disc-diffusion method have demonstrated that the studied essential oil inhibits the growth of pathogenic bacterial and fungal strains such as Escherichia coli ATCC 8739, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538-P, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 2549, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 and Candida albicans ATCC 10231․

Wound healing ability of the 10% ointment based on summer savory essential oil was studied by the planimetric method of wound size estimation, pH evaluation in damaged tissue and characteristics of thermal burns wound surface microbial flora. The results obtained indicate that the application of the ointment is accompanied by burn surface decrease about 19% in average. The described effect is probably conditioned by inhibition of Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella, Esherichia coli pathogenic microorganisms and prevention of increasing pH value under the tested ointment application.

Thus, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antibacterial and wound healing properties of ointment based on summer savory essential oil growing in Armenia, suggest that investigated pharmaceutical form could be served as an effective agent for burnt wounds therapy.