In vitro and in silico cholinesterase inhibitory and antioxidant effects of essential oils and extracts of two new Salvia fruticosa mill. cultivars (Turgut and Uysal) and GC-MS analysis of the essential oils

The EtOH extracts of the leaves of two new cultivars (Uysal-SFU and Turgut-SFT) of Salvia fruticosa Mill. was tested against acetylcholinesterase (IC50: 30.62 +/- 3.27 and 32.97 +/- 2.33 mu g/mL for SFU and SFT, respectively) and butyrylcholinesterase (IC50: 69.91 +/- 1.08 mu g/mL and 86.55 +/- 1.26 mu g/mL), respectively, relevant to Alzheimer's disease. The essential oils showed a stumpy inhibition against AChE and no inhibition against BChE. DPPH radical scavenging activity of the extracts (86.70 +/- 0.17% and 86.14 +/- 1.13% for SFU and SFT, respectively) was stronger than that of quercetin (85.51 +/- 0.17%): Their (1.24 +/- 0.05 and 1.04 +/- 0.16 for SFU and SFT, respectively) ferric-reducing antioxidant power were close to that of the reference (e.g. quercetin, 1.42 +/- 0.14). Molecular docking simulations were performed on their major monoterpenes. Our findings revealed that the leaf EtOH extracts of two cultivars are promising inhibitors of both AChE and BChE.