Toxicity and Psychotropic Activity of Essential Oils of<i>Rosmarinus officinalis</i>and<i>Lavandula officinalis</i>from Morocco

Abstract

Abstract Leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis and the flowers of Lavandula officinalis have been used as medicine for treatment of nervous disorders, in traditional Moroccan medicine. We evaluate the central nervous system psychotropic effects of the essential oil from the leaves of R. officinalis and the flowers of L. officinalis using a battery of comportamental psychopharmacology tests. The essential oil extracted by hydrodistillation were characterized by means of GC-MS. R. officinalis contained α-pinene (15.82 %), camphene (6.80 %), β-pinene (4.75 %), myrcene (1.70 %), p-cymene (2.16 %), 1,8-cineole (50.49 %), camphor (11.61 %), borneol (2.58 %), and borneol acetate (2.08 %). However, lavender oil contains nine constituents, among which 1,8-cineole (5.30 %), linalool (44.67 %), camphor (6.02 %) and linalyl acetate (42.00 %) were identified. The intraperitonial administration in mice of essential oil from L. officinalis at 300 and 600 mg/kg i.p. induces strong sedative effects compared to reference substance diazepam in mice, and an hypnotic effects at doses 1000 and 1500 mg/kg. However, the essential oil extracted from R. officinalis at the doses 50 and 100 mg/kg, produced no sedative activity significant on the central nervous system.