a-Thujone is the toxic agent in absinthe, a liqueur popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries that has adverse health effects. It is also the active ingredient of wormwood oil and some other herbal medicines and is reported to have antinociceptive, insecticidal, and anthelmintic activity. This study elucidates the mechanism of a-thujone neurotoxicity and identifies its major metabolites and ...

α-Thujone is the toxic agent in absinthe, a liqueur popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries that has adverse health effects. It is also the active ingredient of wormwood oil and some other herbal medicines and is reported to have antinociceptive, insecticidal, and anthelmintic activity. This study elucidates the mechanism of α-thujone neurotoxicity and identifies its major metabolites and ...

Thujone is thought to be the main constituent of medicinal herbs that have antidiabetic properties. Therefore, we examined whether thujone ameliorated palmitate-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. Soleus muscles were incubated for < or =12 h without or with palmitate (2 mM). Thujone (0.01 mg/ml), in the presence of palmitate, was provided in the last 6 h of incubation. Palmitate oxid...

BACKGROUND The sage plant Salvia officinalis L. is used as ingredient in foods and beverages as well as in herbal medicinal products. A major use is in the form of aqueous infusions as sage tea, which is legal to be sold as either food or medicine. Sage may contain two health relevant substances, thujone and camphor. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an analytical methodology to...

Absinthe, a strong alcoholic aperitif, is notorious for containing the compound ‘thujone’, which has been commonly regarded as its ‘active ingredient’. It has been widely theorized that the thujone content of vintage absinthe made it harmful to public health, and caused the distinct syndrome absinthism, which was extensively described in the literature prior to the spirit’s ban in 1915. The int...

Background: Common sage (Salvia officinalis) is a popular culinary and medicinal herb. A literature survey has revealed that sage oils can vary widely in their chemical compositions. The purpose of this study was to examine sage essential oil from different sources/origins and to define the possible chemotypes of sage oil. Methods: Three different samples of sage leaf essential oil have been ob...

Thirteen samples of authentic absinthe dating from the preban era (i.e., prior to 1915) were analyzed for parameters that were hypothesized as contributing to the toxicity of the spirit, including naturally occurring herbal essences (thujone, pinocamphone, fenchone), methanol, higher alcohols, copper, and antimony. The total thujone content of preban absinthe was found to range between 0.5 and ...

Aerial parts of Artemisia arborescens were collected from different sites of the Mediterranean area (southwestern Algeria and southern Italy) and the chemical composition of their essential oil (EO) extracted by hydrodistillation was studied by both gas chromatography (GC) equipped with an enantioselective capillary column and GC/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The EOs obtained were tested against s...