Multidisciplinary study of Laurus Nobilis essential oil: From chemical composition to molecular interactions

This study delves into the chemical composition of Laurus Nobilis (LN) essential oil, employing gas chromatography -mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and solidphase microextraction (HS-SPME). The hydrodistillation process yielded essential oil at 0.5 % on a dry mass basis. Notably, the essential oil is characterized by a predominant presence of eucalyptol and linalool, collectively constituting 64.33 % of the total composition. Additionally, the research sheds light on the antioxidant properties of Laurus Nobilis supported by outcomes from DPPH analysis, beta-carotene bleaching, and ABTS+ cation decolorization tests. The DPPH free radical scavenging assay demonstrated an IC50 of 0.86 +/- 0.38 mg/ml. The beta-carotene/linoleic acid bleach test indicated a IC50 of 2.58 +/- 0.10 mg/ml. Comparatively, the ABTS assay revealed antioxidant activity slightly lower than that of ascorbic acid. Molecular docking studies identified caryophyllene, gamma-elemene, (-)-spathulenol, a-terpineol acetate, and alpha-terpineol as compounds with the highest anchoring scores on target proteins. These findings underscore the therapeutic significance in modulating target proteins.