The role of endothelium in the vasorelaxant effects of the essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum in aorta and mesenteric vascular bed of rats

This study investigated the endothelium-dependent vasorelaxant effects of the essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum (EOOG) in aortas and mesenteric vascular beds isolated from rats. EOOG (3-300 mu g/mL) relaxed the tonic contractions induced by phenylephrine (0.1 mu mol/L) in isolated aortas in a concentration-dependent manner in both endothelium-containing and endothelium-denuded preparations. This effect was partially reversed by L-NAME (100 mu mol/L) but not by indomethacin (10 mu mol/L) or TEA (5 mmol/L). In mesenteric vascular beds, bolus injections of EOOG (30, 50, 100, and 300 ng) decreased the perfusion pressure induced by noradrenaline (6 mu mol/L) in endothelium-intact preparations but not in those treated with deoxycholate. L-NAME (300 mu mol/L) but not TEA (1 mmol/L) or indomethacin (3 mu mol/L) significantly reduced the vasodilatory response to EOOG at all of the doses tested. Our data showed that EOOG exerts a dose-dependent vasodilatory response in the resistance blood vessels of rat mesenteric vascular beds and in the capacitance blood vessel, the rat aorta. This action is completely dependent on endothelial nitric oxide (NO) release in the mesenteric vascular beds but only partially dependent on NO in the aorta. These novel effects of EOOG highlight interesting differences between resistance and capacitance blood vessels.