**The Essential Oil and Hydrolats from** *Myristica fragrans* **Seeds with Magnesium Aluminometasilicate as Excipient: Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Anti-inflammatory Activity**

**Inga Matulyte 1,2, Aiste Jekabsone 2, Lina Jankauskaite 2,3, Paulina Zavistanaviciute 4, Vytaute Sakiene 4, Elena Bartkiene 4, Modestas Ruzauskas 5, Dalia M. Kopustinskiene 2, Antonello Santini 6,\* and Jurga Bernatoniene 1,2**


Received: 10 December 2019; Accepted: 30 December 2019; Published: 2 January 2020

**Abstract:** Nutmeg (*Myristica fragrans*) essential oil has antimicrobial, antiseptic, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. We have recently demonstrated that hydrodistillation of nutmeg essential oil by applying magnesium aluminometasilicate as an excipient significantly increases both the content and amount of bioactive substances in the oil and hydrolats. In this study, we aimed to compare the antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activity of hydrolats and essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation in the presence and absence of magnesium aluminometasilicate as an excipient. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method revealed that magnesium aluminometasilicate did not significantly improved antioxidant activity of both essential oil and hydrolat. Antibacterial efficiency was evaluated by monitoring growth of 15 bacterial strains treated by a range of dilutions of the essential oil and the hydrolats. Essential oil with an excipient completely inhibited the growth of *E. faecalis*, *S. mutans* (referent), and *P. multocida*, whereas the pure oil was only efficient against the latter strain. Finally, the anti-inflammatory properties of the substances were assessed in a fibroblast cell culture treated with viral dsRNR mimetic Poly I:C. The essential oil with an excipient protected cells against Poly I:C-induced necrosis more efficiently compared to pure essential oil. Also, both the oil and the hydrolats with aluminometasilicate were more efficient in preventing IL-6 release in the presence of Poly I:C. Our results show that the use of magnesium aluminometasilicate as an excipient might change and in some cases improve the biological activities of nutmeg essential oil and hydrolats.

**Keywords:** nutmeg; essential oil; antioxidant activity; antibacterial activity; poly I:C-induced inflammation; fibroblasts; magnesium aluminometasilicate
