Antioxidant, nitric oxide scavenging and malondialdehyde scavenging activities of essential oils from different chemotypes of Zataria multiflora

The antioxidant, nitric oxide (NO) scavenging and malondialdehyde (MDA) scavenging activities of different Zataria multiflora (ZM) chemotype essential oils (EOs) were investigated. The main components are: ZM1 (carvacrol, p-cymene), ZM2 (carvacrol, p-cymene), ZM3 (carvacrol, p-cymene), ZM4 (linalool), ZM5 (carvacrol, p-cymene, thymol), ZM6 (thymol, carvacrol, p-cymene, gamma-terpienene), ZM7 (thymol, p-cymene, gamma-terpienene) and ZM8 (carvacrol, linalool, p-cymene, thymol). The antioxidant capacities were estimated to be 863 +/- 55, 619 +/- 27, 876 +/- 32, 38 +/- 9, 649 +/- 50, 595 +/- 40, 696 +/- 41 and 618 +/- 9 mu g ascorbic acid equivalents per millilitre for ZM1 to ZM8, respectively. The NO scavenging values were estimated to be 54 +/- 1.2, 50 +/- 1.4, 63 +/- 1, 0.60 +/- 0.1, 53 +/- 0.7, 53 +/- 1.5, 38 +/- 1.1 and 46.5 +/- 3 mu g ascorbic acid equivalents per millilitre for ZM1 to ZM8, respectively. The MDA scavenging values were estimated to be 19 +/- 1, 9 +/- 1, 24 +/- 1, 1.6 +/- 0.6, 12 +/- 1, 11.7 +/- 1, 10 +/- 1 and 12.5 +/- 1.3 mu g ascorbic acid equivalents per millilitre for ZM1 to ZM8, respectively. Among these EOs, ZM3 with carvacrol and p-cymene had higher antioxidant, NO scavenging and MDA scavenging properties.