In recent years, people have become more conscious about the side-effects of fluoride toothpastes and herbal products have drawn attention as alternatives in the struggle against caries. Studies have focused on the benefits of essential oils obtained from herbs because of their antibacterial effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the antibacterial activity of Origanum dubium and Cinnamomum cassia oils combined with herbal toothpastes against Streptococcus mutans. The antibacterial activity of the test materials was determined using the agar well diffusion method before and after the addition of essential oils. We tested the efficacy of Splat Organic and Splat Biocalcium against S. mutans (12 mm and 11 mm, respectively) doubled in combination with Origanum dubium (23 mm for both toothpastes) and tripled with Cinnamomum cassia (38 mm and 36 mm, respectively). Jack N’ Jill toothpaste, which did not initially show any antibacterial effect, exhibited the largest inhibition zones after the addition of the essential oils (38 mm for Origanum dubium and 39 mm for Cinnamomum cassia). The results of this study pointed out that herbal toothpastes exhibit statistically higher antibacterial activity against Streptococcus mutans (p < 0.05) than their initial forms after the addition of essential oils.

Verbascoside, also known as acteoside/kusaginin, has attracted a great attention due to its pharmacological features. In this study, we aimed to determine the cytotoxic effects of pure verbascoside isolated from Phlomis nissolii L. plant in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines in vitro. MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231 cells were treated with verbascoside (100, 48, 25, 10, 1, 0.5, and 0.1 μM) for 24, 48, and 72 hours. Cytotoxic effect of verbascoside in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells was assessed using TEBU-BIO cell counting kit 8. IC₅₀ values for 24, 48, and 72 h verbascoside exposure of MCF-7 cells were determined as 0.127, 0.2174, and 0.2828 μM, respectively. R² values were calculated as 0.9630, 0.8789 and 0.8752, respectively. Two-Way ANOVA multiple comparison test results showed that 100 μM verbascoside has the highest cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 breast cancer (BC) cells after 72 h of exposure. IC₅₀ values for 24, 48 and 72 h verbascoside exposure of MDA-MB 231 cells were determined as 0.1597, 0.2584 and 0.2563 μM, respectively and R² values were calculated as 0.8438, 0.5107 and 0.9203, respectively. Two-Way ANOVA multiple comparisons test results showed that 100 μM verbascoside has the highest cytotoxic effect on MDA-MB 231 BC cells after 24, 48 and 72 h of exposure.

This present study aims to characterize the essential oil compositions of the aerial parts of M. spicata L. and endemic M. longifolia ssp. cyprica (Heinr. Braun) Harley by using GC-FID and GC/MS analyses simultaneously. In addition, it aims to perform multivariate statistical analysis by comparing with the existing literature, emphasizing the literature published within the last two decades, conducted on both species growing within the Mediterranean Basin. The major essential oil components of M. spicata were determined as carvone (67.8%) and limonene (10.6%), while the major compounds of M. longifolia ssp. cyprica essential oil were pulegone (64.8%) and 1,8-cineole (10.0%). As a result of statistical analysis, three clades were determined for M. spicata: a carvone-rich chemotype, a carvone/trans-carveol chemotype, and a pulegone/menthone chemotype, with the present study result belonging to the carvone-rich chemotype. Carvone was a primary determinant of chemotype, along with menthone, pulegone, and trans-carveol. In M. longifolia, the primary determinants of chemotype were identified as pulegone and menthone, with three chemotype clades being pulegone-rich, combined menthone/pulegone, and combined menthone/pulegone with caryophyllene enrichment. The primary determinants of chemotype were menthone, pulegone, and caryophyllene. The present study result belongs to pulegone-rich chemotype.

Non-polar and polar compounds were isolated from the leaves and chemical composition of the essential oil from aerial parts of Sideritis cypria endemic in Northern Cyprus was also determined. The structures of all the isolated compounds were elucidated by means of spectroscopic (UV, NMR: 1D and 2D-NMR: 1H, 13C, COSY, HSQC, HMBC) methods and comparison with literature data. The essential oil composition of the plant material was analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS, simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, secondary metabolites of this endemic species were determined for the first time. As a result, two mixtures of four ent-kaurane diterpenes; sidol (1) and isosidol (2), linearol (3) and isolinearol (4); four phenylethanoid glycosides; verbascoside (5), lavandulifolioside (6), leonoside A (7), leucoseptoside A (8); four flavone glycosides, apigenin-7-O-glucopyranoside (9), isoscutellarein-7-O-[6'''-O-acetyl-allopyranosyl-(1->2)-glucopyranoside] (10) and a mixture of apigenin-7-O-(4''-O-p-coumaroyl)-glucopyranoside (11) and apigenin-7-O-(3''-O-p-coumaroyl)-glucopyranoside (12) were elucidated. 7-O-acetyl-8-epi-loganic acid (13), an iridoid glycoside, was reported herein for the first time for genus Sideritis. In addition, major compounds of the essential oil were determined as a-pinene (14.73±0.15%), b-pinene (16.60±0.20%), b-phellandrene (17.83±0.23%) and epi-cubebol (7.70±0.20%), respectively.

In this study the volatile oils constituents of the inflorescence and unripe fruits of Crataegus azarolus L. and Crataegus pallasii Grisb. were investigated. Fifty-four compounds were identified by GC and GC-MS analysis. The major outstanding constituents of the essential oil in all samples (dried and fresh C. azarolus and dried C. pallasii) were; tricosane (33.8%, 29.3%, 34.0 %), pentacosane (24.6%, 21.1%, 30.8%), heptacosane (12.5%, 10.2%, 11.7%), and tetracosane (6.0%, 5.6%, 5.7%), respectively. Besides these alkanes, ten compounds (nonanal, β-elemene, undecanal, β-caryophyllene, (E, E)-α-farnesene, eicosane, hexyl benzoate, (Z)-3-hexenyl benzoate, (E)-2-hexenyl benzoate, docasane) were determined in all samples. Carvacrol, carvacryl acetate, carvone, and thymol were determined for the first time from C. pallasii essential oil. (E)-β-damascenone was determined only in dried C. azarolus oil; sesquiterpene compounds valencene, α-selinene and β-selinene, d-cadinene, germacrene D, selina-3,7(11)-diene, spathulenol, and d-cadinol were determined only in fresh C. azarolus sample. On the other hand (2E,6E)-farnesol was determined in dried C. azarolus and C. pallasii samples.rnrn