Fitoterapia. 2003 Jul; 74(5): 445-52.

Relaxant effect of essential oil of Melissa officinalis and citral on rat ileum contractions.

Sadraei H, Ghannadi A, Malekshahi K.

Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. hsadraei@yahoo.com

The relaxant effect of the essential oil of Melissa officinalis and its main component, citral, on rat isolated ileum contractions was evaluated. M. officinalis essential oil (MOEO) inhibited the response to KCl (80 mM), ACh (320 nM) and 5-HT (1.28 microM) in a concentration-dependent manner with a IC(50) of approximately 20 ng/ml. Citral also had a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on contraction of rat ileum with IC(50)s comparable to that of MOEO.