Adolfo Soto-Domínguez; Rubén García-Garza; Yolanda Ramírez-Casas;  Javier Morán-Martínez & Luis Benjamín Serrano-Gallardo

Summary

Since ancient times, traditional medicine has widely used species of the genus Lippia as analgesics, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antifungal, etc. Numerous studies describe several compounds present in aqueous extracts, methanol, or essential oils of these plants, being flavonoids the most abundant compounds. However, the composition and quantity of secondary metabolites depend on the geographical area, climatic factors, altitude, time of harvest and growth status of these plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of aqueous extract of oregano (Lippia graveolens HBK) from the North of Mexico and its toxic effect in vitro and in vivo. The antioxidant activity of the aqueous extract was measured by DPPH method in six dilutions of the extract (5-160 mg / mL), Trolox was used as a reference. For the in vitro toxic effect, cytotoxicity assay with larvae of Artemia salina was used. For the in vivo effect, 24 males mice were used and divided into 6 groups (n = 4): 4 experimental groups with 10, 100, 1000 and 5000 mg extract / kg body weight administered orally respectively, also we used a group positive control (5 mg of colchicine / kg body weight administered via ip) and a negative control group (distilled water only). After treatment all mice were sacrificed, and samples from liver and kidney were collected and analyzed by histological and histochemical studies. Also a quantitative analysis was done. The antioxidant activity of aqueous extract of oregano was presented at 160 mg/mL. The LC50 was greater than 1.000 mg/mL, so the extract is considered nontoxic. In the morphological analysis in vivo with different doses of aqueous extract of oregano, no toxic effect was observed. The results validate the use of oregano in traditional medicine.

KEY WORDS: Antioxidant; Oregano; Morphological analysis.

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