Potential anti-inflammatory biomarkers from Myrtaceae essential oils revealed by untargeted metabolomics.

Many species from Myrtaceae have traditionally been used in traditional medicine as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal, antioxidant and antirheumatic, besides in blood cholesterol reduction. In the present work, the anti-inflammatory activity of essential oils from eighteen Myrtaceae spp. were evaluated according to their ex-vivo anti-inflammatory activity in human blood, and the corresponding biomarkers were determined using untargeted metabolomics data and multivariate data analysis. From these studied species, six displayed anti-inflammatory activity with percentage rates of inhibition of PGE2 release above 70%. Caryophyllene oxide ( 1 ), humulene epoxide II ( 2 ), β -selinene ( 3 ), α -amorphene ( 4 ), α -selinene ( 5 ), germacrene A ( 6 ), β -bisabolene ( 7 ), α -muurolene ( 8 ), α -humulene ( 9 ), β -gurjunene ( 10 ), myrcene ( 11 ), β -elemene ( 12 ), α -cadinol ( 13 ), α -copaene ( 14 ), E -nerolidol ( 15 ) and ledol ( 16 ) were annotated as potential anti-inflammatory biomarkers. The results obtained in this study point to essential oils from species of the Myrtaceae family as a rich source of anti-inflammatory agents.