Background and objectives: The genus Nepeta is growing in Asia, Europe and the North Africa. The plants of this genus have been used in folk medicine for the antiseptic and astringent properties as topical remedies in cutaneous eruptions and snakes bites. Moreover, they are utilized as anti-tussive, anti-spasmodic, antiasthmatic, febrifuge and diuretic agents. Phytoche...

Nepetalactones are iridoid monoterpenes with a broad range of biological activities produced by plants in the Nepeta genus. However, none of the genes for nepetalactone biosynthesis have been discovered. Here we report the transcriptomes of two Nepeta species, each with distinctive profiles of nepetalactone stereoisomers. As a starting point for investigation of nepetalactone biosynthesis in Ne...

Asthma is a chronic lung inflammation which affects many people. As current therapies for asthma mainly rely on administration of glucocorticoids and have many side effects, new therapy is needed. In this study, we investigated Nepeta bracteata Benth., a traditional Uygur Herb, for its therapeutics effect in OVA induced asthmatic mice model. Treatment of OVA sensitized asthma mice with extract ...

The aim of this work was to determine the effects of two geographically different strains of Rhizophagus intraradices (M3 and GA5) on the total biomass and essential oil (EO) yield and composition of Calamintha nepeta, with or without phosphorus (P) fertilization, under greenhouse conditions. The plant biomass was not significantly affected by any of the treatments, showing higher values in con...

Isolation and GC/MS quantitative determination of ursolic acid in the herb of Nepeta cataria var. citriodora have been performed. The content of this compound was in the range 0.95 ñ 1.30%. Daucosterol (βsitosterol 3-O-β-D-glucoside) was also isolated from the plant, in addition to small amounts of β-sitosterol, campesterol, α-amyrin and β-amyrin. The content and composition of essential oil in...

In this study, we aimed to determine chemical composition and antibacterial activities of Satureja hortensis and Calamintha nepeta against to 20 phytopathogenic bacteria causing serious crop loss. The essential oils of S. hortensis and C. nepeta were isolated by the hydrodistillation method and the chemical composition of the essential oils were analyzed by GC-MS. The antibacterial properties o...

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by unprovoked, recurring seizures that disrupts the nervous system and can cause mental and physical dysfunction. Based on the ethno pharmacological information of the plant, the methanolic and aqueous extracts of the flowers of Nepeta bractaeta was evaluated for its antiepileptic activity. The methanolic and aqueous extracts of the flowers of N...

Molecular markers, mainly DNA-based are potential tools for DNA barcoding and phylogenetic study. The plant species belonging to the Nepeta genus have important medicinal value because of the presence of nepetalactones, and they have been used to treat human diseases. We amplified nuclear and chloroplast gene loci to develop a DNA barcode and phylogenetic study of Nepeta deflersiana. Among the ...

Background and objectives: Many Nepeta species have been commonly used in Iranian folk medicine as tranquilizer, relaxant, carminative and restorative tonic for nervous and respiratory disorders. Inflammation is a problem in many diseases and has an important role in brain function that can cause neurodegenerative disorders. Inflamed glial cells can exacerbate neurodegenerative diseases by prod...

Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM) describes a kind of dementia with similar signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It explains the pathology of dementia with cold intemperament of the brain, which means that the brain is colder than its healthy form. ITM strategy for treatment of dementia is to heat the brain up by medical "hot" herbs. Nepeta menthoides (NM) is one of these "hot" herb...