Inhibitory effect of Turkish Rosmarinus officinalis L. on acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase enzymes

In the current study, we have tested acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibitory activity of the petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, chloroform, and methanol extracts, rosmarinic acid as well as the essential oil obtained from Rosmarinus officinalis L. growing in Turkey by a spectrophotometric method of Ellman using ELISA microplate-reader at 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/mL concentrations. In addition, quantification of rosmarinic acid, a common phenolic acid found in rosemary, was carried out by reversed-phase HPLC in the methanolic extract of the plant, which was found to have 12.21 ± 0.95% (122.1 ± 9.5 mg/g extract) of rosmarinic acid. Rosmarinic acid was also tested for its AChE and BChE inhibitory effect and found to cause 85.8% of inhibition against AChE at only 1.0 mg/mL. Besides, the essential oil was analyzed by GC–MS technique, which was shown to be dominated by 1,8-cineol (44.42%) and followed by α-pinene (12.57%).