The essential oil was obtained from the aerial parts of Pogostemon cablin by hydrodistillation. The chemical compounds of P. cablin essential oil were analyzed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Eight compounds were totally identified and accounted for 92.4% of the oil. Patchoulol was the major component (51.1%), followed by phloroacetophenone (23.5%) and β-patchoulene (7.3%). The essential oil and its two major compounds patchoulol and phloroacetophenone were evaluated for their contact and repellent activities against Tribolium castaneum, Lasioderma serricorne, and Liposcelis bostrychophila. Results of bioassays indicated that the essential oil and patchoulol had great contact toxicity against three species of insects. Meanwhile, the essential oil and patchoulol showed great repellent activities against T. castaneum and L. bostrychophila but were mildly repellent to L. serricorne. Phloroacetophenone exhibited neither contact nor repellent activity against any of these target insects. This work emphasized the promising potential of P. cablin to control insect pests during storage.

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Hydroxylated polymethoxyflavones (PMFs) are a unique class of flavonoid compounds mainly found in citrus plants. We investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of one major 5-hydroxy PMF, namely 5-demethylnobiletin (5DN) and its metabolites 5, 3′-didemethylnobiletin (M1), 5, 4′-didemethylnobiletin (M2), and 5, 3′, 4′-tridemethylnobiletin (M3) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. The results showed that M2 and M3 produced stronger inhibitory effects on the production of nitric oxide (NO) than their parent compound at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Western blotting and real-time PCR analyses demonstrated that M2 and M3 significantly decreased iNOS and COX-2 gene expression. The results also showed that M1 and M3 induced heme oxygenase-1(HO-1) gene expression. Overall, our results demonstrated that metabolites of 5DN significantly inhibited LPS-induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells and generally possessed more potent anti-inflammatory activity than the parent compound, 5DN.