Rosemary is used for headache, depression, poor concentration, memory enhancement, liver and gallbladder complaints, loss of appetite and for cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure. Rosemary enhances nerve growth factor (NGF), cognitive performance and mood according to clinical studies, has antioxidant properties and improves detoxification. Rosemary may have an anti-spasmodic effect on the gastrointestinal tract and in the ducts of the gallbladder. Rosemary may also have a positive inotropic effect on the heart and increases coronary blood flow. Clinical studies also support that rosemary has antimicrobial, anti-mutagenic and antioxidant properties.
Published Clinical Studiescl top
1
Carnosic acid, a component of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.), promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor in T98G human glioblastoma cells.
Kosaka K, Yokoi T.
Beauty Care Products Division, Health Care Business Group, Nagase & Co., Ltd., Nihonbashi-Kobunacho, Tokyo, Japan. kunio.kosaka@nagase.co.jp
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a factor vital for the growth and functional maintenance of nerve tissue. The authors found that a rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extract enhanced the production of NGF in T98G human glioblastoma cells. Furthermore, the results indicated that carnosic acid and carnosol, which are major components of the rosemary extract, were able to promote markedly enhanced synthesis of NGF.
PMID: 14600414 [PubMed - in process]
2
Aromas of rosemary and lavender essential oils differentially affect cognition and mood in healthy adults.
Moss M, Cook J, Wesnes K, Duckett P.
Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Division of Psychology, Northumberland Building, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK. mark.moss@unn.ac.uk
This study was designed to assess the olfactory impact of the essential oils of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and rosemary (Rosmarlnus officinalis) on cognitive performance and mood in healthy volunteers. One hundred and forty-four participants were randomly assigned to one of three independent groups, and subsequently performed the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) computerized cognitive assessment battery in a cubicle containing either one of the two odors or no odor (control). Visual analogue mood questionnaires were completed prior to exposure to the odor, and subsequently after completion of the test battery. The participants were deceived as to the genuine aim of the study until the completion of testing to prevent expectancy effects from possibly influencing the data. The outcome variables from the nine tasks that constitute the CDR core battery feed into six factors that represent different aspects of cognitive functioning. Analysis of performance revealed that lavender produced a significant decrement in performance of working memory, and impaired reaction times for both memory and attention based tasks compared to controls. In contrast, rosemary produced a significant enhancement of performance for overall quality of memory and secondary memory factors, but also produced an impairment of speed of memory compared to controls. With regard to mood, comparisons of the change in ratings from baseline to post-test revealed that following the completion of the cognitive assessment battery, both the control and lavender groups were significantly less alert than the rosemary condition; however, the control group was significantly less content than both rosemary and lavender conditions. These findings indicate that the olfactory properties of these essential oils can produce objective effects on cognitive performance, as well as subjective effects on mood.
PMID: 12690999 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
3
Evaluation of the effectiveness of Rosmarinus officinalis (Lamiaceae) in the alleviation of carbon tetrachloride-induced acute hepatotoxicity in the rat.
Sotelo-Felix JI, Martinez-Fong D, Muriel P, Santillan RL, Castillo D, Yahuaca P.
Departamento de Biomedicina Molecular, CINVESTAV-IPN, Apartado Postal 14-740, DF 07000, Mexico, Mexico. soteloj@cantera.reduaz.mx
The effect of oral administration of Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Lamiaceae) on CCl(4)-induced acute liver injury was investigated. Rats were daily treated with the plant extract at a dose of 200 mg/kg corresponding to 6.04 mg/kg of carnosol as determined by reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The treatment was initiated 1 h after CCl(4) administration and Rosmarinus officinalis fully prevented CCl(4) effect on hepatic lipid peroxidation after 24 h of CCl(4) administration. The increase in bilirubin level and alanine aminotransferase activity in plasma induced by CCl(4) was completely normalized by Rosmarinus officinalis. The treatment also produced a significant recovery of CCl(4)-induced decrease in liver glycogen content. CCl(4) did not modify the activity of liver cytosolic glutathione S-transferase (GST) compared with that of control groups. However, Rosmarinus officinalis increased liver cytosolic GST activity and produced an additional increment in plasma GST activity in rats treated with CCl(4). Histological evaluation showed that Rosmarinus officinalis partially prevented CCl(4)-induced inflammation, necrosis and vacuolation. Rosmarinus officinalis might exert a dual effect on CCl(4)-induced acute liver injury, acting as an antioxidant and improving GST-dependent detoxification systems.
PMID: 12065145 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
4
Rosemary-stimulated reduction of DNA strand breaks and FPG-sensitive sites in mammalian cells treated with H2O2 or visible light-excited Methylene Blue.
Slamenova D, Kuboskova K, Horvathova E, Robichova S.
Department of Mutagenesis and Carcinogenesis, Cancer Research Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences, Vlarska 7, 833 91 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. exonslam@savba.sk
In this study possible protective effects of rosemary against oxidative DNA damage induced by H2O2- and visible light-excited Methylene Blue in colon cancer cells CaCo-2 and hamster lung cells V79 were investigated. The level of DNA damage (DNA strand breaks) was measured using the classical and modified single cell gel electrophoresis, so-called comet assay. Our findings showed that an ethanol extract from rosemary reduced the genotoxic activity of both agents after a long-term (24 h; 0.3 microg/ml) or short-term (2 h; 30 microg/ml) pre-incubation of cells. We suggest that the extract of rosemary exhibits a protective effect against oxidative damage to DNA as a consequence of scavenging of both *OH radicals and singlet oxygen ((1)O2).
PMID: 11825661 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antioxidant properties of phenolic diterpenes from Rosmarinus officinalis.5
Zeng HH, Tu PF, Zhou K, Wang H, Wang BH, Lu JF.
School of Pharmaceutical Science, The State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, Peking University, Beijing 100083, China.
AIM: To investigate the inhibition capacities of carnosol, rosmanol, and epirosmanol, which are phenolic diterpenes from Rosmarinus officinalis, to oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) formation in human blood and detect their scavenging activities to lipid free radical and superoxide anion in vitro. METHODS: The antioxidant activities which were expressed with the inhibilities to lipid free radicals in the membrane lipid of cell and oxidized LDL formation were evaluated by TBARS assay and ESR method. The inhibition on the Cu2+-mediated oxidization of apo B formation in LDL was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. RESULTS: Carnosol, rosmanol, and epirosmanol had an inhibitory activity to lipid peroxidation and oxidized apo B formation in human bloods LDL. The IC50 were 7-10 micromol/L. The antioxidant mechanism was related to the scavenging activities to lipid free radical. CONCLUSION: carnosol, rosmanol, and epirosmanol showed the activity in inhibiting LDL oxidation.
PMID: 11749806 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
7
Allied studies on the effect of Rosmarinus officinalis L. on experimental hepatotoxicity and mutagenesis.
Fahim FA, Esmat AY, Fadel HM, Hassan KF.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
The hepatoprotective and antimutagenic effects of the rosemary essential oil and the ethanolic extract were investigated using carbon tetrachloride and cyclophosphamide as hepatotoxic and mutagenic compounds, respectively. Our results revealed that i.g. administration of the rosemary ethanolic extract (0.15 g/100 g BW) to rats for 3 weeks produced the most pronounced hepatoprotective effect compared to silymarin (reference compound) due to the amelioration of most of the studied serum and liver parameters and confirmed by histopathological examination of the liver tissue. Pretreatment of mice for 7 days with the rosemary essential oil (1.1 mg/g BW) followed by i.p. injection with cyclophosphamide reduced significantly the induced mitodepression in the bone marrow cells of the animals. The potential hepatoprotective and antimutagenic activities of the rosemary ethanolic extract and essential oil, respectively, are attributed to the presence of a relatively high percentage of phenolic compounds with high antioxidant activity (according to our chemical studies).
PMID: 10719582 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Pharmacology of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis Linn.) and its therapeutic potentials.8
al-Sereiti MR, Abu-Amer KM, Sen P.
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Fateh University of Medical Sciences, Tripoli, Libya.
The use of plants is as old as the mankind. Natural products are cheap and claimed to be safe. They are also suitable raw material for production of new synthetic agents. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis Linn.) is a common household plant grown in many parts of the world. It is used for flavouring food, a beverage drink, as well as in cosmetics; in folk.medicine it is used as an antispasmodic in renal colic and dysmenorrhoea, in relieving respiratory disorders and to stimulate growth of hair. Extract of rosemary relaxes smooth muscles of trachea and intestine, and has choleretic, hepatoprotective and antitumerogenic activity. The most important constituents of rosemary are caffeic acid and its derivatives such as rosmarinic acid. These compounds have antioxidant effect. The phenolic compound, rosmarinic acid, obtains one of its phenolic rings from phenylalanine via caffeic acid and the other from tyrosine via dihydroxyphenyl-lactic acid. Relatively large-scale production of rosmarinic acid can be obtained from the cell culture of Coleus blumei Benth when supplied exogenously with phenylalanine and tyrosine. Rosmarinic acid is well absorbed from gastrointestinal tract and from the skin. It increases the production of prostaglandin E2 and reduces the production of leukotriene B4 in human polymorphonuclear leucocytes, and inhibits the complement system. It is concluded that rosemary and its constituents especially caffeic acid derivatives such as rosmarinic acid have a therapeutic potential in treatment or prevention of bronchial asthma, spasmogenic disorders, peptic ulcer, inflammatory diseases, hepatotoxicity, atherosclerosis, ischaemic heart disease, cataract, cancer and poor sperm motility.
Publication Types:
PMID: 10641130 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antimicrobial activity of essences from labiates.9
Larrondo JV, Agut M, Calvo-Torras MA.
Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain.
Bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts were subjected to the action of Lavandula officinalis, Melissa officinalis and Rosmarinus officinalis essences in a steam phase, using a microatmospheric technique. Due to the methodology employed, L. officinalis essence was more active in filamentous fungi than the other essential oils studied. All three essences possessed a similar degree of activity against the micro-organisms tested, though a relatively higher activity was seen in the case of M. officinalis.
PMID: 7630324 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]