Anxiolytic Effects Of Essential Oils Extracted From Rhizome Of Four Chinese Medicine Plants

Traditional Chinese medicine is the wisdom of hundreds of years' practice in China.There were many assays studing anxiolytic effects of Chinese medicine.Anxiety is a common psychotic disorder.Studies suggest that about 7.9% to 10.1% of the urban population will experience different kinds of anxiety during their lifetime.Although the efficacy of Western medicine relieving anxiety is fast,but there are usually some side effects.Traditional Chinese medicine has fewer side effects than Western medicine,and has the advantage of comprehensive effect.Also,the effects of Chinese medicine essential oils have not been studied fully.Therefore,the use of traditional Chinese medicine essential oils to relieve anxiety symptoms as adjuvant therapy has certain significance.In this study,the rhizome of Saussurea lappa,Acorus tatarinowii,Cyperus rotundus and Ligusticum chuanxiong were used as experimental materials.Essential oils were extracted by steam distillation and analyzed by GC-MS.Anxiolytic effects of sniffing essential oil were tested by Elevated plus-maze(EPM),Light-Dark Box(LDB),and Spontaneous locomotor activity(SLA).At the same time,the difference of relieving anxiety effect of different sniffing days on essential oil was compared.Finally,we used the chronic restraint model to make the mice anxious to some extent,and to verify the anxiolytic effect of the essential oil to provide the experimental basis for further exploring the mechanism.The main constituents of the essential oil were as follows: fresh Saussurea lappa: Dehydrocostus Lactone(18.98%),Costol(10.95%),Isovalencenol(10.95%),Dihydrodehydrocostus Lactone(7.83%);dried Saussurea lappa: Dehydrocostus Lactone(51.40%),?-Ionone(5.20%);Acorus tatarinowii: ?-Asarone(59.35%),Estragole(5.55%),?-Asarone(5.24%),?-Asarone(5.12%);Cyperus rotundus: Cyperenone(25.52%),?-Cyperone(12.48%),?-Ylangene ketone(6.67%);Ligusticum chuanxiong: E-Ligustilide(48.68%)and Senkyunolide(11.43%).Compared with the control group,under the EPM,there were significant differences in the OT% and OE% in the low concentration of Acorus tatarinowii essential oil and in the medium concentration of Cyperus rotundus essential oil.And there was significant difference in the OE% in the high concentration of Acorus tatarinowii essential oil.And there were no significant differences in the LDB model in the low,medium and high concentration groups of Acorus tatarinowii and Cyperus rotundus essential oil.Also,there were no significant differences in moving distance and stay time between low,medium and high concentration groups of Acorus tatarinowii and Cyperus rotundus essential oil.In the Different Days' experiment,compared with the control group,under the EPM,there were significant differences in the OT% and OE% in the 1d,3d Acorus tatarinowii essential oil and in the 3d Cyperus rotundus essential oil.And there was significant difference in the OE% in the 7d Cyperus rotundus essential oil.And there were significant differences in the LDB model in the 7d Acorus tatarinowii and 3d,7d Cyperus rotundus essential oil.After using Restraint Model on mice,compared with the model group,there were significant differences in the LDB model in the groups of Acorus tatarinowii and Cyperus rotundus essential oil.The results showed that the essential oils of Acorus tatarinowii and Cyperus rotundus had effects of relieving anxiety and had no side effects on central nervous system depression.