Investigation of essential oils of some ferula species in terms of chemical composition, biological activity, in vitro cytotoxicity and genotoxicity

Today with growing interest in natural products, works in this field also have gained momentum in the scientific field. Essential oils are aromatic liquid that have been used since ancient times. Besides being used as flavours and fragrances, they have been used in health care due to the different biological activities. The genus Ferula is one of the most important species of the Apiaceae family. It contains 17 species in Turkey, 177 in Asia and 180-185 in the world. In this study, analyses of essential oils of Ferula hermonis Boiss., F. brevipedicellata Peşmen ex M. Sağıroğlu & H. Duman ve F. rigidula DC. were simultaneously performed by GC and GC/MS. The main components of the essential oils of F. brevipedicellata ve F. rigidula were determined as α-pinen (68.9% and 73.0%, respectively), β-pinen (5.3% and 4.0%, respectively) ve naftalen (4.3% and 8.5%, respectively); the main components of the essential oils of F. hermonis were determined as α-pinen (64.1%), naftalen (8.3%) and trans-verbenol (4.8%). Antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was determined by microdilution method and according to results the essential oils have moderate or weak activity aganist microorganisms. The results of determination of free radical scavenging effects with DPPH● was showed that the essential oils have no antioxidant activity at 0.5 mg/mL and lower concentrations. The cytotoxicity of essential oils was determined aganist NIH3T3 (ATCC® CRL-1658™, mouse embriyonic fibroblast cell line) which is a normal cell line. The essential oil of F. rigidula, may be promising one according to the results of biological activity and cytotoxicity assays, was applied Ames MPFTM 98/100 test and it was determined that not mutagenic in tested doses. The study is the first investigation in terms of antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity of essential oils of F. hermonis, F. brevipedicellata and F. rigidula; antimicrobial activity and determination of chemical composition of essential oils of F. brevipedicellata and F. rigidula; evalution of genotoxicity of essential oil of F. rigidula. Keywords: Ferula sp., essential oil, antimicrobial, antioxidant, NIH3T3, Ames MPFTM 98/100