Antioxidant and antiangiogenic activities of the essential oils of Myristica fragrans and Morinda citrifolia

Objective: To investigate the anti angiogenic activity and antioxidant properties of Myristica fragrans (M. fragrans) (nutmeg) and Morinda citrifolia (M. citrifolia)(mengkudu) oils. Methods: The nutmeg and megkudu essential oils were obtained by steam distillation. The antioxidant activities of both essential oils were determined by beta-carotene/linoleic acid bleaching assay and reducing power while the anti angiogenic activity was investigated using rat aortic ring assay using various concentrations. Results: The results showed that nutmeg oil has higher antioxidant activity than mengkudu oil. The nutmeg oil effectively inhibited the oxidation of linoleic acid with (88.68+/-0.1)% while the inhibition percentage of oxidation of linoleic acid of the mengkudu oil is (69.44+/-0.4)%. The nutmeg oil and mengkudu oil showed reducing power with an EC50 value of 181.4 mu g/mL and 3 043.0 mu g/mL, respectively. The antiangiogenic activity of nutmeg oil showed significant antiangiogenic activity with IC50 of 77.64 mu g/mL, comparing to mengkudu oil which exhibits IC50 of 109.30 mu g/mL. Conclusion Bioactive compound(s) will be isolated from the nutmeg essential oil to be developed as antiangiogenic drugs.