Flower essential oil of Tagetes minuta mitigates oxidative stress and restores BDNF-Akt/ERK2 signaling attenuating inflammation- and stress-induced depressive-like behavior in mice.

Essential oils (EO) are plant extracts widely used for various pharmacological applications and their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects have received a lot of attention because they hold the potential to reduce oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation, alterations involved in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder. This study examined the benefits of administration of flower EO of the Tagetes minuta (10 and 50 mg/kg, intragastric route) in attenuating behavioral, neurochemical, and neuroendocrine changes in animal models of depressive-like behavior induced by acute restraint stress and lipopolysaccharide (0.83 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). We demonstrated that the treatment of mice with flower EO of the T. minuta reversed the depressive-like behavior induced by stress or inflammatory challenge in mice. This effect is most likely due to the reversal of oxidative stress in the hippocampus of mice, the decrease in plasma corticosterone levels, and restoration of the mRNA levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, protein kinase B, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2. As an outcome, flower EO of the T. minuta has promising antidepressant properties and could be considered for new therapeutic strategies for major depressive disorder.