The chemical composition and antiangiogenic activity of essential oils of some hypericum species

The term angiogenesis means the formation of new blood vessels from existing ones. Nowadays, natural compounds which have antiangiogenic properties play a major role in therapy of angiogenesis-dependent diseases like cancer or inflammation. In daily life, essential oils are used as flavour or preservative agent in food and fragrance agent in cosmetics especially in perfumes. They are also important in the treatment of diseases due to their antioxidant, antiviral, antimicrobial, analgesic, sedative, spasmolytic, anticancer and antiinflammatory properties.In this present work, chemical compositions of the essential oils of H. perforatum L., H. hircinum L., H. confertum Choisy ve H. hyssopifolium Chaix. subsp. elongatum (Ledeb.) Woron var. microcalycinum traditionally used for their wound healing properties, were determined by using Gas Chromatography (GC) and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). Antiangiogenic activity of the essential oils were screened by an in vivo model chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. As a result of both gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the essential oils, the main compound of H. perforatum, H. hircinum, H. hyssopifolium subsp. elongatum var. microcalycinum was determined as ?-pinene (% 33.3, % 88.3, %57.8) and the oil of H. confertum germacrene D (% 30.2) was determined as the main constituent. In the CAM assay, H. perforatum essential oil showed antiangiogenic activity with weak-medium effect at the concentration of 50 µg/pellet. H. hircinum, H. hyssopifolium and H. confertum essential oils did not show any activity. At the tested concentrations essential oils showed neither membrane irritation nor toxicity.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation on the chemical composition of H. confertum, H. hyssopifolium subsp. elongatum var. microcalycinum and on the CAM activity of H. perforatum, H. confertum, H. hircinum, H. hyssopifolium subsp. elongatum var. microcalycinum.Key words: Hypericum perforatum, Hypericum hircinum, Hypericum confertum, Hypericum hyssopifolium subsp. elongatum var. microcalycinum, essential oil, chorioallantoic membrane (CAM).