Lamiacea

Nepeta (Lamiaceae) is a genus of perennial or annual herbs found in Asia, Europe and North Africa. About 250 species of Nepeta are reported of which, 67 species are present in Iran. Some species of this genus are important medicinal plants and their extracts have been used for medicinal purposes. Aerial parts of Nepeta sintenisii Bornm. was subjected to hydrodistillation and the chemical composition of isolated essential oil has been analyzed by GC/MS method for first time. Identification of components of the volatile oil was based on retention indices relative to n-alkanes and computer matching with the Wiley275.L library, as well as by comparison of the fragmentation patterns of the mass spectra with those reported in the literature. 

Salvia is one of the most important genera of the Family Lamiaceae. Several species of salvia ai e used in folk medicine as antiseptics, astringents and spasmolytics [3]. 

This example involves a smdy of free flavonoids (aglycones) present on the leaf surface of Mentha suaveolens Ehrh. (Lamiaceae) growing in Spain and in Algeria... 

As is the case with many members of Lamiaceae, Satureja douglasii produces abundant essential oil from glandular trichomes on the leaves. Gas chromatographic analysis of the leaf oils from specimens collected throughout the species range revealed the presence of some dozen and a half well-known compounds. The major compounds identified were camphene [215], camphor [216], which, taken together, were considered to comprise the bicyclic type, carvone [217], pulegone [218], menthone [219], and isomenthone [220] (see Fig. 2.68 for structures 215-220). The predominance of each of these major components defined a terpene type. (All compounds were observed in each of the terpene types, most in comparatively small amounts, some only as traces.)... 

There is, therefore, a need for original coxibs, and one might think to look into the medicinal flora of Asia and the Pacific, as an increasing body of evidence suggests the families Apocynaceae, Clusiaceae, Asteraceae, Polygonaceae, Lamiaceae, and Con-volvulaceae to elaborate ast sources of biomolecules which are able to inhibit the enzymatic activity of COX. 

The medicinal Lamiaceae, with about 250 species, represents a vast source of material to explore when looking for anxiolytic agents of clinical value. Among these medicinal species are Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and Leonotis nepetifolia, the properties of which are described here. 

Turkey is one of the unique countries in the world having three different climates, namely continental, mediterrenean and oceanic climates [3]. Turkey is also at the junction of three geographical regions for the plants, mainly Euro-Siberian in North Anatolia, Irano-Turanian in Central and East Anatolia, Mediterrenean in West and South Anatolia. All these properties contribute to the richness and diversity of the flora in Turkey with over 10,000 taxa in 173 families and 1,225 genera [4-7]. There are 15 endemic genera and over 2,650 endemic species. Endemism ratio is around 30%, however it is higher in certain families, such as Scrophulariaceae (52%), Campanulaceae (49%), Lamiaceae (=Labiatae) (44%), Asteraceae (=Compositae) (38%), and even in some particular species, the ratio reach 80-100%, such as Ebenus (100%), Verbascum (80%), Sideritis (78%) [7]. 

Most of the plants, collected from Lamiaceae family, are aromatic and grown in Aegean-Mediterranean regions (West-South Anatolia). These are Salvia, Sideritis, Thymus, Origanum, Satureja, Stachys, Micromeria, Nepeta etc. 

Juglans regia L. Lamiaceae (Labiatae) Ajuga bombycina Boiss. -21.4 49.0 28.4... 

Among Lamiaceae family plants, except 4/wg postii, none of the species gave hit in the yeast based assay. However, a few Salvia species (S. triloba, S. blepharo-chlaena, S. syriaca), and a few Sideritis species (S. aytachii, S. lycia) showed high inhibition against at least one or two tested yeasts among the three yeasts nsed in DNA damaging microtiter assay (Table 6.1). 

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