Table 2.

Summarization of the biological activities of essential oils from oregano.

Oregano Species	Biological Activity	Effect	Reference
H. patens	Anti-inflammatory	Reduction on the levels of NO and ROS produced in murine macrophage cells.	[16]
L. palmeri	Anti-inflammatory	Inhibition on the production of ROS and NO by LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages	[16]
L. graveolens	Antioxidant	Radical scavenging activity against DPPH	[90]
	Anti-inflammatory	Reduction on the levels of NO and ROS produced in LPS-stimulated murine macrophage cells	[16]
O. acutidens	Antioxidant	Showed scavenging activity against DPPH radical	[42]
O. compactum	Antioxidant	ABTS radical-scavenging activity	[111]
	Cytotoxic	Nontoxic when used in MCF-7 cells	[111]
O. dictamnus	Antioxidant	Ferric reducing/antioxidant power	[117]
	Antiproliferative	Inhibit colon carcinoma (LoVo) and hepatocarcinoma (HepG2) cell proliferation	[117]
O. ehrenbergii	Antioxidant	DPPH radical-scavenging activity	[107]
O. glandulosum	Antioxidant	Showed antiradical activity	[72,73]
O. heracleoticum	Anti-inflammatory	Inhibition of NO production	[100]
O. libanoticum	Antioxidant	Ferric reducing/antioxidant power	[117]
	Antiproliferative	Inhibit HepG2 cell proliferation	[117]
O. majorana	Anti-inflammatory	Reduction in the secretion of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6) in THP-1 cells	[124]
	Anti-genotoxic	Reduces the chromosomal aberration in bone marrow cells of rats	[162]
	Cytotoxic	Inhibit cell viability of human breast (MCF-7) and prostate (LNCaP) cancer cell lines.	[163]
O. microphyllum	Antioxidant	Showed ferric reducing power	[117]
O. minutiflorum	Antioxidant	Retard lipidic oxidation	[116]
O. onites	Antioxidant	Showed free radical scavenging against DPPH radical	[50]
	Anti-angiogenic	Blocks in vitro tube formation	[159]
O. rotundifolium	Anti-genotoxic	Reduces the effect of Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in human peripheral lymphocytes	[161]
O. syriacum	Antioxidant	DPPH radical-scavenging activity	[107]
O. virens	Antioxidant	Showed scavenging activity against DPPH radical	[118]
O. vulgare subsp. hirtum	Antioxidant	Total reducing capacity (Folin-Ciocalteu method), radical-scavenging activity in the UV radiation-induced peroxidation in liposomal membranes	[101]
	Antioxidant	Reduces 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances.	[102]
	Antioxidant	DPPH and ABTS radical-scavenging activity	[80,83,114,115]
	Antiproliferative	Inhibit human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial (A549) cell proliferation	[76]
	Cytotoxic	Decrease cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner on human keratinocyte (HaCaT) and lung cancer (A549) cell lines	[80]
	Hypoglycemic	α-Amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity	[83]
O. vulgare subsp. vulgare	Antioxidant	Radical scavenging activity (DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays). Total reducing capacity (Folin-Ciocalteu method)	[37,55,56,57,83,110,112,85]
	Antioxidant	Prevent autoxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acid esters	[106]
	Anti-inflammatory	Reduced synthesis of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 cytokines. Increased synthesis of cytokine IL-10	[140]
	Anti-inflammatory	Inhibition of the levels of inflammatory biomarkers (MCP-1, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1) on activated-primary human neonatal fibroblasts	[125]
	Antiproliferative	Inhibit human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and human colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29) cell proliferation	[157]
	Antitumor	Decrease the sizes of tumors in disease mice	[158]
	Hypoglycemic	Inhibits α-amylase and α-glucosidase activity	[83,153]