Rosmarinic acid antioxidative properties

A low evergreen shrub native to the coast of the Mediterranean. The leaves contain rosmarinic acid — also found in the mint family, which has antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. A dilute extract fed to laboratory animals resulted in nearly a 50% decrease in experimentally induced mammary gland tumors, and the same for colon and lung cancers. 

The presence of rosmarinic acid in methanolic extracts of lavandin cell cultures suggests that these extracts may offer potential as antioxidants. Despite the fact that lavandin belongs to the Lamiaceae family, there is little information about its antioxidant properties (IJ)... 

These types of DNA detection can also be applied to studies of antioxidative properties of various natural substances preserving DNA from damage [49, 50]. The detection scheme exploits quantification of the DNA portion that survives previous incubation of the biosensor in a mixture of the DNA cleavage agent and antioxidant/mixture of antioxidants under investigation. Using this approach, yeast polysaccharides, phenolic acids such as rosmarinic and caffeic acids, selected flavonoids, as well as aqueous plant extracts and tea extracts were studied [51]. 

Chapado, L., Linares-Palomino, P.J., Salido, S., Altarejos, J., Rosado, J.A., and Salido, G.M. 2010. Synthesis and evaluation of the platelet antiaggregant properties of phenolic antioxidants stmcturally related to rosmarinic acid. Bioorganic Chemistry, 38, 108-114. 

Aortic atherosclerotic lesion areas were reduced in mice that consumed 1.52 mg of rosmarinic acid /kg/day compared to mice on the control diet. Figure 3 shows the photomicrographs of typical atherosclerotic lesion of the aortic arch of apolipoprotein E-deficient mice after treatment. Rosmarinic acid inhibited plasma lipid peroxide levels in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice without affecting the total cholesterol levels in plasma, indicating that the anti-atherosclerotic properties of rosmarinic acid may be due, in part, to its antioxidative action which inhibits the increase in lipid peroxides. 

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