Essential oil from Thymus vulgaris L. has valuable therapeutic potential that is highly desired in pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Considering these advantages and the rising market demand, induced polyploids were obtained using oryzalin to enhance essential oil yield. However, their therapeutic values were unexplored. So, this study aims to assess the phytochemical content, and antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities of tetraploid and diploid thyme essential oils. Induced tetraploids had 41.11% higher essential oil yield with enhanced thymol and γ-terpinene content than diploid. Tetraploids exhibited higher antibacterial activity against all tested microorganisms. Similarly, in DPPH radical scavenging assay tetraploid essential oil was more potent with half-maximal inhibitory doses (IC50) of 180.03 µg/mL (40.05 µg TE/mg) than diploid with IC50 > 512 µg/mL (12.68 µg TE/mg). Tetraploids exhibited more effective inhibition of in vitro catalytic activity of pro-inflammatory enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) than diploids at 50 µg/mL concentration. Furthermore, molecular docking revealed higher binding affinity of thymol and γ-terpinene towards tested protein receptors, which explained enhanced bioactivity of tetraploid essential oil. In conclusion, these results suggest that synthetic polyploidization using oryzalin could effectively enhance the quality and quantity of secondary metabolites and can develop more efficient essential oil-based commercial products using this induced genotype.

Department of Agroecology and Crop Production Faculty of Agrobiology Food and Natural Resources Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 Suchdol Prague 6 165 00 Czech Republic

Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 165 00 Suchdol Prague 6 Czech Republic

Department of Food Science Faculty of Agrobiology Food and Natural Resources Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of Sustainable Technologies Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Prague Czech Republic

Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Rozvojova 263 165 02 Lysolaje Prague 6 Czech Republic

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