Research Article
Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Activities of Bioactive
Compounds Contained in Rosmarinus officinalis Used in the
Mediterranean Diet
Mohammed Bourhia ,
1,2
Fatima Ezzahra Laasri ,
1,3
Hind Aourik,
4
Aicha Boukhris,
5
RiazUllah ,
6
Ahmed Bari,
7
SyedSaeedAli,
7
MohammedElMzibri ,
1
Laila Benbacer ,
1
and Said Gmouh
4
1
Research Unit and Medical Biology, National Center for Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (CNESTEN),
Rabat 10001, Morocco
2
Laboratory of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Nutrition, and Environment, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy,
University Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco
3
Laboratory of Nutrition, Health and Environnement, Faculty of Science, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco
4
Faculty of Sciences Ben M’Sik, University Hassan II Casablanca, B. P. 7955, Casablanca, Morocco
5
Laboratory REMTEX, Higher School of Textile and Clothing Industries, Km 8, Route d’El Jadida, Casablanca, Morocco
6
Medicinal Aromatic and Poisonous Plants Research Center, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2457,
Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
7
Central Laboratory, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoMohammedBourhia;bourhiamohammed@gmail.comandRiazUllah;rullah@ksu.edu.sa
Received 21 August 2019; Revised 27 September 2019; Accepted 14 October 2019; Published 16 November 2019
Academic Editor: Jamal A. Mahajna
Copyright © 2019 Mohammed Bourhia et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Background. Rosmarinus officinalis (R. officinalis) is a medicinal plant called rosemary, largely used in the Mediterranean diet for
many decades ago. Objective. e aim of the present study was to investigate the polyphenolic content, the antioxidant activity, and the
antiproliferative effect against human prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP) of carnosol and carnosic acid as bioactive compounds
contained in R. officinalis growing in Morocco. Materials and Methods. Polyphenolic content of R. officinalis ethanolic extract was
studied using colorimetric assay. Carnosol and carnosic acid contained in R. officinalis extract were quantified using high-performance
liquid chromatography (HPLC). e antiproliferative effect of the studied extracts on LNCaP was evaluated by WST-1 bioassay, and
the antioxidant activity was assessed using DPPH assay. Results. e extracts of R. officinalis showed an important polyphenolic
content ranging from 74.15 μg·GAE/mg to 146.63 μg·GAE/mg. e percentage of carnosol and carnosic acid in rosemary crops ranges
from 11.7 to 17.3% and 1.09% to 3%, respectively. e extracts of R. officinalis exhibited a promoting antioxidant activity with IC
50
ranging from 0.236 mg/mL to 0.176 mg/mL. Regarding the antiproliferative effect, the WST-1 assay revealed that all the tested extracts
reduced notably the cell viability with IC
50
values ranging from 14.15 to 15. 04 μg/mL. Conclusion. In the current work, carnosol and
carnosic acid exhibit antioxidant and antiproliferative activities in a concentration-dependent manner.
1. Introduction
Many people throughout the world use plants to treat diseases
[1]. In Morocco, folk medicine has been spread all over the
country. Ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological surveys
conducted in different Moroccan areas have shown more than
500 plant species used in Moroccan alternative medicine [2].
During the last decades, great efforts were drawn to charac-
terize natural products derived from plants having biological
activities for combating human diseases. Numerous phyto-
chemical compounds have been identified and investigated for
their therapeutic properties, including anti-inflammatory,
anticarcinogenic, antiatherosclerotic, antibacterial, antifungal,
anti-allergic, antiviral, and antimutagenic activities [3, 4].
Hindawi
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2019, Article ID 7623830, 7 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/7623830