Rosmarinus officinalis L. (rosemary) is a medicinal plant native to the Mediterranean region and cultivated around the world. Besides the therapeutic purpose, it is commonly used as a condiment and food preservative. R. officinalis L. is constituted by bioactive molecules, the phytocompounds, responsible for implement several pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiproliferative, antitumor and protective, inhibitory and attenuating activities. Thus, in vivo and in vitro studies were presented in this Review, approaching the therapeutic and prophylactic effects of R. officinalis L. on some physiological disorders caused by biochemical, chemical or biological agents. In this way, methodology, mechanisms, results, and conclusions were described. The main objective of this study was showing that plant products could be equivalent to the available medicines.

Galleria mellonella is a well-accepted insect model for the study of pathogen-host interactions and antimicrobial compounds. The main advantages of this model include the low cost of maintenance, the fast life cycle, the possibility of using a large number of caterpillars and the innate immune system, which is evolutionarily conserved relative to mammals. Because of these advantages, different research groups have been working to implement the rearing of G. mellonella in laboratory conditions. This protocol describes our experience in the rearing of G. mellonella caterpillars for experimental infection models and the influence of different artificial diets on developmental and physiological parameters. Here, we suggest a diet composition that benefits the life cycle of G. mellonella by accelerating the larval phase length and increasing the caterpillar weight. This diet also stimulated the immune system of G. mellonella by increasing the hemolymph volume and hemocyte concentration. In addition, our rearing protocol generated caterpillars that are more resistant to infection by Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. A standard G. mellonella rearing protocol is fundamental to minimize external influences on the results, and this simple and easy protocol can support researchers starting to rear G. mellonella.

This study aimed to evaluate the capacity of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and/or its products to induce the synthesis of cytokines (TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐10, and IL‐12) by mouse macrophages (RAW 264.7). Three microorganism preparations were used: live L. rhamnosus (LLR) suspension, heat‐killed L. rhamnosus (HKLR) suspension, and the supernatant of a heat‐killed L. rhamnosus (SHKLR) suspension, which were cultured with macrophages (37°C, 5% CO₂) for 2 h and 30 min. After that, cells were cultured for 16 h. The supernatants were used for the quantitation of cytokines, by ELISA. The results were compared with the synthesis induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and analysed, using ANOVA and Tukey test, 5%. LLR and HKLR groups were able to significantly increase the production of TNF‐α, IL‐6, and IL‐10 (P < 0.05). SHKLR also significantly increased the production of TNF‐α and IL‐10 (P < 0.05) but not IL‐6 (P > 0.05). All the L. rhamnosus suspensions were not able to produce detectable levels of IL‐1β or significant levels of IL‐4 and IL‐12 (P > 0.05). In conclusion, live and heat‐killed L. rhamnosus suspensions were able to induce the synthesis of different cytokines with proinflammatory (TNF‐α and IL‐6) or regulatory (IL‐10) functions, suggesting the role of strain L. rhamnosus ATCC 7469 in the modulation or in the stimulation of immune responses.

Rosmarinus officinalis L. extract effectively contributed to in vitro control of important species of microorganisms such as Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus mutans, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in mono- and polymicrobial biofilms that are responsible for several infections in oral cavity as in other regions of the body. Furthermore, this extract promoted also cell viability above 50% at concentrations ≤ 50 mg/mL, excellent anti-inflammatory effect, showing inhibition or reduction of the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines, being also non-genotoxic to cell lines studied. Thus, this extract may be a promising therapeutic agent that can be added in some medical and dental formulations such as toothpastes, mouthwashes, irrigating root canals, ointments, soaps, in order to control pathogenic microorganisms and biofilms, with anti-inflammatory effect and absence of cytotoxic and genotoxic.