Essential oil from eugenia pyriformis cambess aerial parts and its major constituent limonene as an agent with anti-acetylcholinesterase and anticariogenic activities

This study aimed at determining, for the first time, anticariogenic and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities of essential oil from Eugenia pyriformis aerial parts (EP-EO) and its major constituent limonene against cariogenic bacteria and the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE). EP-EO and limonene were subject to the broth microdilution method on 96-well microplates and determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum inhibitory concentration of biofilm (MICB50) (µg/mL). AChE inhibition was qualitatively evaluated by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). EP-EO and limonene not only showed strong anticariogenic activity, since their MIC and MICB50 values ranged between 20 and 400 µg/mL, but also inhibited cholinesterase when subject to TLC. Both GC-MS and GC-FID analyses identified and quantified the following major constituents: limonene (14.8%), nerolidol (11.0%) and α-cadinol (10.3%). This study showed that EP-EO and limonene were active in in vitro assays and, thus, may be important targets of further in vivo studies.