ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF CHAMOMILE ESSENTIAL OIL IN MICE

ABSTRACT Essential oils are plant secondary metabolites with positive pharmacological properties, e.g. anti-oxidative, antimicrobial or immunomodulative, but they can have toxic and allergic effects as well. The aim of this study was to analyze anti-inflammatory effects of chamomile essential oil dietary administration in carrageenan paw oedema and trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) colitis. Mice received chamomile essential oil in three concentrations (5000, 2500 and 1250 ppm) in the standard rodent diet starting two weeks before induction of carrageenan paw oedema and TNBS colitis. Dietary supplementations with 5000 ppm of chamomile essential oil significantly reduced both the oedema and the weight of mice paws compared with control. The same dose of chamomile essential oil showed protective effect on colonic mucosa and improved macroscopic signs of TNBS-induced colonic inflammation. Bacterial translocation from the lumen into the mesenteric lymph nodes was significantly reduced in mice treated with 5000 ppm and 2500 ppm concentrations of chamomile essential oil. Overall our data indicate that chamomile essential oil is able to improve some parameters of murine experimental inflammatory models depending on the concentration used

Meteoric fluid‐rock interaction in Variscan shear zones

International audienceVariscan shear zones in the Armorican Massif represent sites of strong fluid‐rock interaction. The hydrogen isotope composition of muscovite (δDMs) from syntectonic leucogranite allows to determine the source of fluids that infiltrated the footwall of three detachment zones and the South Armorican Shear Zone. Using temperatures of hydrogen isotope exchange estimated from microstructural data, we calculate the hydrogen isotope ratios of water (δDwater) present within the shear zones during high‐temperature deformation. A ~40‰ difference in δDwater values from deep to shallow crustal level reveals a mixing relationship between deep crustal fluids with higher δD values that range from −34 to −33‰, and meteoric fluids with δD values as low as −74‰ in the upper part of detachment footwalls