Unraveling the Phytochemistry, Traditional Uses, and Biological and Pharmacological Activities of Thymus algeriensis Boiss. & Reut

Table 7

In vivo activities of T. algeriensis extracts.

Extract	Doses	Model	Activity	Effects	Ref.
Algeria
Leaves
80% MeOH	200, 400, and 600 mg/kg	Male rats	Anti-inflammatory activity	Significant mild reduction in edema thickness using 400 mg/kg by up to 30%	[22]
			Leukocyte’s recruitment	A dose-dependent reduction in the total leukocyte number at three doses tested by up to 62%
	200, 400, and 600 mg/kg	Swiss albino mice	Acetic acid-induced vascular permeability	Attenuation of vasodilation and decreased vascular permeability in mice at 400 or 600 mg/kg by 63 and 58%, respectively
	200 and 400 mg/kg		Antinociceptive activity by hot plate test	A dose-dependent increase in response latency using 200 and 400 mg/kg by up to 200%
	200 and 400 mg/kg		Antinociceptive activity by acetic acid-induced abdominal writhing	94% reduction of the writhing response using 400 mg/kg
	200 and 400 mg/kg	Male Wistar rats	Heat hyperalgesia	Restoration of heat response latency when measured at day 14 post chronic constriction injury (CCI) by about 160 and 200% using 200 and 400 mg/kg, respectively	[47]
			Mechanical hyperalgesia (pinprick test)	Increased the withdrawal time of injured hind paw by 8.4- and 6-folds after 7 and 14 days, respectively
			Acetone drop test (paw cold allodynia)	Decreased cold allodynia score by about 16- and 10-folds after 7 and 14 days using 200 and 400 mg/kg, respectively
			Paint-brush test (mechanical dynamic allodynia)	Attenuated the dynamic allodynia score when assessed at day 7 by up to 1.75-folds; Normalization of dynamic response score by 400 mg/kg dose level when measured at day 14 post surgery
Aqueous extract	2000 and 5000 mg/kg	Albino Wistar rats	Acute toxicity study for 14 days	No mortality or signs of toxicity and no significant differences in body weight, food consumption, and absolute organ weights between controls and treated animals	[119]
Aerial part
MeOH–H2O	200, 400, and 800 mg/kg	Albino male mice	Safety evaluation	No influence on the levels of AST and ALT; A significant reduction in phosphatase alkaline levels by up to 35% using 400 mg/kg; No effect on the levels of urea and creatinine	[24]
			Antioxidant activity	Increased the plasma antioxidant levels by 3-folds (22% of inhibition) using 800 mg/kg
				Increased the iron reducing ability (908 μM FeSO4 eq/mL) using 800 mg/kg by 2-folds compared to the nontreated group (405 μM FeSO4 eq/mL); Improved CAT activity by 24 to 86% using 200 to 800 mg/kg; Increased GSH levels in mice treated with 400 and 800 mg/kg (34 to 45 nmol/mL) compared to those of the nontreated group (30 nmol/mL); Decreased the MDA levels in the plasma of treated groups at 200 and 400 mg/kg by 50 and 63%, respectively
Tunisia
Aerial part
EO	180 mg/kg per day dissolved in normal saline	Sprague Dawley rats	Body weight gain, toxicity, and mortality	Body weight gain, no mortality, and no sign of toxicity after 15 days of experiment	[118]
			Assessment of lipid profile	Decreased the MDA levels ( MDA/mg protein) compared to the control group ( MDA/mg protein)
			Assessment of antioxidant defense enzymes	Prevented the toxicity effect of H2O2 on the nonenzymatic antioxidant GSH level and the activities of SOD, CAT, GPx, and GST
			Histopathological examination	No pathological change, normal histoarchitecture, and significant reduction in neuronal damage induced by H2O2
			AChE inhibition	Decreased the AChE activity by up to 31.5%
	150 mg/kg	Adult male Wistar rats	Reproductive organs weights	Weight gain by up to 92%	[121]
			Sperm morphology	No effect on sperm’s morphology, counts, and mobility
			Sperm count and motility
			Sperm viability	Increased the sperm’s viability by up to 46%
			Histopathological studies	Improvement in morphological abnormalities (amorphous head, hookless head, doublet heads, compact head tail with a cytoplasmic droplet, irregular tail, and coiled tail) of sperms
			DNA fragmentation analysis using gel electrophoresis	Protection against H2O2-induced DNA fragmentation in testis
			Lipid peroxidation	Reduction of the levels of MDA in testicular cells induced by H2O2 at 1 mmol/L
			Assessment of nonenzymatic antioxidants	Prevention of the H2O2-induced alterations in GSH level
			Protein estimation	Increase in total protein
	180 mg/kg per day	Sprague Dawley rats	Hepatic and renal functional marker enzymes	Attenuation of the increase in AST and reduction in urea and creatinine levels in H2O2-treated group	[122]
			Enzymatic antioxidants and lipid profile	Recovered the levels of CAT (up to 150% increase), SOD (up to 233% increase), GST (up to 15.7% increase) and GPx (up to 71.4% increase) activities, and GSH (up to 98% increase)
			Histopathological examination	No histopathological changes in the liver and kidney; Alleviation of the injuries in the glomeruli and proximal tubules (77.7% reduction in damage score)
			Body and organ weights	Prevention of H2O2-induced liver, kidney, and weight loss
	54, 117, and 180 mL/kg	Adult male and female Wistar rats	Histology of gastric lesions	Lesions inhibition mainly at doses of 180 mg/kg for male rats (88%) and between 117 and 180 mg/kg for female rats (96.25 and 98.85%)	[20]
			Assessment of enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants	Increase in SOD, CAT, GPx, and GST activities and GSH content
			Measurement of mucus production	Increase in the mucus production of gastric mucosa compared to control group
			Acute toxicity study in rodents	No signs of toxicity and absence of abnormal organic damage to the rats’ organs

AChE: acetylcholine; ALP: alanine transaminase; AST: aspartate transaminase; CAT: catalase; CCI: chronic constriction injury; CDNB: 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene; GPx: glutathione peroxidase; GSH: glutathione; GST: glutathione S-transferases; MDA: malondialdehyde; SOD: superoxide dismutase. All experiments were done orally.