IMR Press / FBS / Volume 14 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbs1402010
Open Access Original Research
The Antispasmodic Effect of Warionia saharae Essential Oil in Experimental Models and its Mechanism of Action
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1 Laboratory of Bioressources, Biotechnology, Ethnopharmacology and Health, Faculty of Sciences, Mohamed the First University, 60000 Oujda, Morocco
2 Laboratoire d’Amélioration des Productions Agricoles, Biotechnologie et Environnement, (LAPABE), Mohamed the First University, 60000 Oujda, Morocco
3 Laboratoire de Biologie des Ligneux et des Grandes Cultures, INRAE USC1328, Campus Eure et Loir, Orleans University, 28000 Chartres, France
4 Department of Life Sciences, National University of Kaohsiung, 811 Kaohsiung, Taiwan
5 LERBEDD, Ecole Normale supérieure, Martil, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, 93150 Tetouan, Morocco
6 Laboratory of Biochemistry, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences & Techniques, 52000 Errachidia, Morocco
*Correspondence: hano@univ-orleans.fr (Christophe Hano); m.aziz@ump.ac.ma; azizmo5@yahoo.fr (Mohammed Aziz)
Academic Editor: Giuseppe Annunziata
Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2022, 14(2), 10; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbs1402010
Submitted: 10 January 2022 | Revised: 12 February 2022 | Accepted: 22 February 2022 | Published: 31 March 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Research on Medicinal Plants)
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

With several medicinal and aromatic species, the Asteraceae family is one of the largest angiosperm families. The genus Warionia is represented in this family by only one species, Warionia saharae. In Moroccan traditional medicine, this species is widely used to treat gastrointestinal problems. Essential oil of this plant (EoWs) was studied for possible myorelaxant and antispasmodic activities to rationalize some of the traditional uses. In this investigation, hydrodistillation was used to obtain the essential oil from the aerial part of the dry plant extract (EoWs), which was then analyzed using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The major compounds identified in the EoWs are nerolidyl acetate (21.44%), β-Eudesmol (19.47%), linalool (16.48%), 1-terpinene-4-ol (10.93%), and cineole (5.34%). EoWs is relatively safe in the case of acute intake up to 2 g/kg body weight of albino mice. The effect of EoWs on intestinal relaxation was investigated using rabbit and rat jejunal smooth muscle. We have noticed that EoWs produce a myorelaxation on basal rabbit jejunum’s contractions in a concentration-dependent manner with a maximal effect at 30 μg/mL. This myorelaxation was not dependent on adrenergic receptors. When the rat jejunums were pre-contracted with 25 mM KCl or 10 μM Carbachol (CCh), EoWs had an antispasmodic action with an IC50 values of 15.76 ± 0.37 and 12.04 ± 0.30 μg/mL, respectively. Preliminary results showed that it is probable that our plant might act directly through the NO and guanylate cyclase signaling pathway and on muscarinic but not nicotinic receptors. The results reveal that the Essential oil of W. saharae appears to have an impact on intestinal relaxation in vitro conditions. This finding lends credence to the traditional usage of this plant to treat intestinal disorders.

Keywords
Warionia saharae
essential oil
rabbit
rat
jejunum
myorelaxation
antispasmodic effects
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