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DOI: 10.1055/s-0030-1249956
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York
Assessing the Local Anesthetic Effect of Five Essential Oil Constituents
Publikationsverlauf
received Sept. 13, 2009
revised April 16, 2010
accepted April 23, 2010
Publikationsdatum:
26. Mai 2010 (online)
![](https://www.thieme-connect.de/media/plantamedica/201015/lookinside/thumbnails/10.1055-s-0030-1249956-1.jpg)
Abstract
We studied the effects of five monoterpenoids, viz. 1,8-cineole, fenchone, linalool, p-cymene and α-pinene, on the sciatic nerve fibers of the frog Rana ridibunda (Pallas, 1771) and compared them to that of lidocaine, a standard local anesthetic. The isolated sciatic nerve, with its perineurium intact, was placed in a three-chambered recording bath, which allowed us to monitor the compound action potentials (CAP), stable in amplitude, for over 2 days. The half-vitality time (IT50), which is the time required for the amplitude of the CAP to decrease to 50 % of its control value, was 53.5 ± 0.9 h for a nerve incubated in normal saline at 26.0 °C. The IT50 values for nerves incubated in saline with p-cymene, 1,8-cineole, or α-pinene, at 30.0 mM, were 19.9 ± 0.4, 32.9 ± 0.5, and 31.0 ± 0.3 hours, respectively. As the IT50 value for 30.0 mM lidocaine, a standard local anesthetic, was 1.6 ± 0.3 min under the same conditions, these three compounds cannot be considered as having a local anesthetic effect. The IT50 values for 30.0 mM linalool and fenchone were 5.7 ± 0.6 and 15.4 ± 1.1 min, respectively; they were significantly, but not markedly different from the respective value for lidocaine. These results combined with the fast inhibition of the CAP and its fast recovery after the removal of either linalool or fenchone indicate a local anesthetic activity of the two compounds. Linalool retained this activity even at lower concentrations of 15.0 and 7.5 mM. The local anesthetic effects of lidocaine and linalool were concentration-dependent; this was not the case for fenchone, which had a relatively strong local anesthetic activity at 30.0 mM, but was entirely inactive at 25.0 mM. On the basis of the effects of the five monoterpenoids on the electrophysiological properties of the sciatic nerve fibers of the frog, we conclude that, whereas 1,8-cineole, p-cymene and α-pinene cause only minor effects, linalool and fenchone exhibit acute local anesthetic activity.
Key words
action potential - ex vivo - fenchone - frog - linalool - sciatic nerve
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Dr. George Theophilidis
Department of Zoology
School of Biology
Aristotle University
University Campus
Thessaloniki 54124
Greece (Hellas)
Telefon: + 30 23 10 99 82 61 and 99 82 75
Fax: + 30 23 10 99 82 69
eMail: theophil@bio.auth.gr