Papers of the Week

The genus (Asteraceae) comprises about 80 species, amongst them L. It is a wild plant growing in Egypt that possesses many traditional uses as a headache, colic, and chest cold remedy. In our study, the chemical composition of . essential oils was analyzed using GC-MS spectroscopy. Sixteen components of leave and stem oils and thirteen components of flower oils were characterized. The main components in both essential oil parts were camphor (88.79% and 86.45%) and -thujone (5.14% and 10.40%) in the leaves and stems and the flowers, respectively. The anti-inflammatory activity of the oils in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells was evaluated. The flower oil showed its predominant effect in the amelioration of proinflammatory cytokines and tumor necrosis factor-α, as well as cyclooxygenase-2. The bornyl acetate showed the highest affinity for the cyclooxygenase-2 receptor, while compound –menth-2-ene-1-ol had the best affinity for the tumor necrosis factor receptor, according to the results of molecular docking. In addition, the molecule –farnesene showed promising dual affinity for both studied receptors. Our findings show that essential oils from . have anti-inflammatory properties through their control over the generation of inflammatory mediators. These findings suggest that . essential oils could lead to the discovery of novel sources of anti-inflammatory treatments.