Chemical Composition and Anti-inflammatory Activity of Apium graveolens var. dulce Essential Oils from Senegal

Apium graveolens var. dulce commonly known as celery, belongs to the Apiaceae family. It is used especially as a vegetable and medicinal plant. In Senegal, A. graveolens is used as a food condiment. The aim of this work is to study the chemical composition of A. graveolens stems (S), leaves (L) essential oils and anti-inflammatory activity. GC/FID and GC/MS analyzes carried out on essential oils obtained by steam distillation showed that oils from both stems and leaves were characterized by the same major constituents α-pinene, the prominent compound of oils represented 69.3 and 68.4% for stems (S) and leaves (L), respectively. It is followed by limonene (9.5 and 9.8%), α-phellandrene (5.5 and 5.9%) and β-pinene (4.8 and 4.3%). These compounds represented 89.1% (S) and 88.4% (L) of the total essential oils content. Anti-inflammatory activity was measured by the inhibition of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) by A. graveolens essential oil anti-inflammatory assays revealed an IC50 of 29.5±2.0 µg/mL for A. graveolens oils and 23.7±0.5 µg/mL for quercetine used as a reference. This study showed that essential oils of A. graveolens was an important source of α-pinene who is probably responsible of its anti-inflammatory properties.