**5. Conclusions**

Nutmeg essential oil prepared with and without magnesium aluminometasilicate as an excipient has similar antioxidant activity. Nutmeg essential oil hydrolat prepared without excipient has a higher antioxidant activity compared to that with magnesium aluminometasilicate as an excipient.

Nutmeg essential oil with aluminometasilicate has extended antibacterial properties compared to the pure oil without additions. Both preparations prevent growth of *P. multocida* strain, but the oil with aluminometasilicate also inhibits *E. faecalis* and *S. mutans* (referent).

Nutmeg essential oil preparations with aluminometasilicate have stronger anti-inflammatory activity in Poly I:C-affected fibrolast cell culture. The oil with the excipient has a higher degree of cytoprotection from Poly I:C-induced necrosis, and both the oil and hydrolats with excipient more efficiently prevent IL-6 release compared to the preparations without aluminometasilicate.

The results show that the application of magnesium aluminometasilicate as an excipient in hydrodistillation could help to increase the biological activity of essential oil and hydrolats.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, I.M. and J.B.; methodology, I.M., A.J., D.M.K., M.R., A.S. and E.B.; validation, V.S., P.Z., J.B., A.S. and A.J.; investigation, I.M., L.J., P.Z., M.R. and V.S.; data curation, J.B.; writing-original draft preparation, I.M., A.J., P.Z., D.M.K.; writing-review and editing, J.B. and I.M.; visualization, L.J., I.M., G.L., A.S., V.S.; supervision, J.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to thank Open Access Centre for the Advanced Pharmaceutical and Health Technologies (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and for the opportunity to use modern infrastructure and perform this research.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
