Several studies have shown that inhalation of Lavandula angustifolia L. (Lavender) reduces hypertension, while systemic effects and mechanism of action of lavender oil on blood pressure is not clear. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of intravenous and ntraperitoneal injection of Lavandula angustifolia L. oil on normal blood pressure in male rats. In this experimental study, 70 male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into 10 groups (n=7). Following anesthetizing the animals with sodium thiopental, femoral artery and vein were cannulated respectively for recording blood pressure and injection of Lavandula angustifolia L. oil. Lavender oil or its vehicle (Propylene glycol) was injected by intravenous (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg/bw) or intraperitoneal injection (500mg/kg/bw). For the evaluation of the mechanism of Lavender oil, L-NAME (4mg/kg/bw), atropine (1mg/kg/bw), indomethacin (5 mg/kg/bw) or saline was injected intraperitoneally before intravenous administration of Lavender angustifolia L. oil. Intravenous injection of Lavender oil of 25 and 50 mg/kg/bw reduced arterial blood pressure in compare to control group (P<0.05) and dose of 50 mg/kg/bw was more effective than dose of 25 mg/kg/bw (P<0.05). 100 mg/kg/bw of Lavender angustifolia L. oil caused serious fall of blood pressure and resulted in animal death. Intraperitoneally injection of Lavender angustifolia L. oil at dose of 500 mg/kg reduced arterial blood pressure that this reduction was longer than intravenously administration of Lavender oil (P<0.05). Intraperitoneal injection of L-NAME, atropine or indomethacin had no significant effect on baseline of blood pressure and hypotensive effect of Lavender angustifolia L. oil. Intravenous injection of Lavandula angustifolia L. oil in doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg/bw reduced arterial blood pressure in rat, but intraperitoneally injection of Lavender oil at dose of 500 mg/kg/bw prolonged the reduction of blood pressure in animals.

In order to determine the most appropriate intercropping pattern of pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia L.), an experiment was conducted as completely randomized block design with three replications during 2017-2018 cropping season. Intercropping treatments included: different intercropping ratios of calendula and lavender (100% calendula:  calendula sole crop, 75% calendula: 25% lavender, 50% calendula: 50% Lavender, 25% calendula flower: 75% lavender, and 100% lavender: evergreen sole crop). The measured traits included plant height, fresh and dry weight of shoot, leaf chlorophyll, essential oil percentage and Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) index. The results showed that the highest plant height (64.54 and 51.56 cm), shoot dry weight (820.17 and 139.67 g m-2), and flower yield (661 and 4.29 g m-2) were observed in sole culture of pot marigold and lavender, respectively. The number of branches and the percentage of essential oil for both crops under intercropping treatments were higher than sole culture. The land equivalent ratio (LER) in all intercropping treatments except 25% pot marigold and 75% lavender was higher than one and between 1.4 and 1.75. In general, intercropping of pot marigold with lavender as 50%:50% is recommended higher efficiency and production stability.

Intercropping has become important in many parts of the world due to the optimal use of resources and increasing the quantitative and qualitative yield of medicinal and agricultural plants. To evaluate the effects of different intercropping patterns of black mustard and [d1] lavender on some morphological traits, essential oil content and the Land Equivalent Ratio [d2] (LER), an experiment was conducted based on a complete random block design [d3] in three replications on the research farm of Islamic Azad University, Yasooj Branch during 2017-2018. Different ratios of black mustard and lavender were intercropping treatments, these treatments included: 100% black mustard (black mustard sole crop), 75% black mustard + 25% lavender, 50% black mustard + 50% lavender, 25% black mustard + 75% lavender and 100% lavender (lavender sole crop). Study traits included root fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, number of branches, plant height, essential oil content and land equality [d4] ratio. The results showed that different intercropping patterns had a significant effect on all the studied traits. The highest content of essential oils and other mentioned traits in both plants were obtained by intercropping treatment (50% black mustard + 50%lavender). A positive regression relationship was observed between essential oil content and shoot dry matter in both black mustard and lavender plants. There was a positive and significant correlation among essential oil content and other traits in lavender. The Land Equality Ratio (LER) index in all intercropping treatments was more than one (1.38 and 1.84), indicating the superiority of the intercropping systems compared to the sole crop system. In total, intercropping of 50% black mustard + 50% lavender compared to sole crop is recommended due to the improvement of morphological traits and increasing its usefulness.

With respect to epilepsy prevalence and the fact that some of the patients remain refractory to available antiepileptic drugs, design of suitable drugs, without unwanted side effects is necessary. The use of plant extracts to treat diseases is proposed as a therapeutic modality. Lavandula officinalis (L. officinalis), commonly known as ustukhuddoos, has been used for a long time in traditional medicine for some of nervous disorders like epilepsy. The aim of this investigation was to provide a scientific basis for traditional use of L. officinalis in epilepsy. A total of 60 male NMRI mice weighing 25 to 30 g were randomly divided into six groups including: 1. PTZ, 2. positive control (PTZ and valproate 150 mg/kg, as an anticonvulsant drug), 3 to 5. mice received L. officinalis extract at three doses of 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg, and 6. mixed group which received L. officinalis (200 mg/kg) and valproate (100 mg/kg) i.p. All groups were kindled by 11 injections of PTZ (35 mg/kg) with an interval of 48 h. In the 12th injection, all groups were tested for PTZ challenge dose (75 mg/kg). The phases of seizure (0-6), threshold and duration of second and fifth phases were observed for 30 min after PTZ injection. Data analysis showed that L. officinalis could reduce intensity and duration of seizures. In addition, there was no phase 5 following L. officinalis treatment. Anti-epileptic effect in mix group was not more than the L. officinalis group. Antiepileptic effect of chronic administration of L. officinalis was established and it was more effective at a dose of 200 mg/kg than doses of 400 and 800 mg/kg. Meanwhile, L. officinalis could reduce seizure phases better than valproic acid.

Hypertension is a health problem and alternative medicine is offered for its controlling. Nutritional effects of Lavandula angustifolia L. (lavender) oil on high blood pressure (BP), and histological changes of the aorta in rat has been investigated in this study. Therty five male wistar rats were divided into 5 groups; normal, hypertensive and control. Hypertension was induced by daily L-NAME administration in drinking water for 6 weeks and lavender oil (500 mg/kg) or its vehicle was given orally simultaneously. After basal BP measurement, lavender (50 mg/kg, iv) was injected in control groups. Histological evaluation of the thoracic aorta included staining with hematoxylin-eosin and orcein methods. Hypertension induction increased mean arterial BP from 106 to 177 mm Hg and lavender treatment reduced it to 140 mm Hg (P< 0.001). Lavender had no effect on normal rats. Intravenous injection of lavender reduced BP about 75% in normotensive and hypertensive rats (P<0.001). Hypertension induction increased cross-section area, aorta and media thickness, and reduced elastic lamina thickness (P<0.001). Lavender treatment reduced cross-section area of the aorta and media thickness, and increased elastic lamina thickness (P < 0.05). Hypertension and treatment had no effect on advanthia and elastic lamina numbers. Nutritional lavender oil prevented BP increases and pathological changes of the aorta in hypertensive rats. It seems lavender oil is beneficial for prophylaxis of hypertension.

Sleep is an important factor in the mental and physical health of individuals. It is a vital need that influences mostly individual’s life quality and their activities during awakening. Lack of sleep has been addressed as a risk factor of coronary arteries diseases. Studies have reported on the relationship between sleep disorders and increased risk of coronary artery arteries diseases.
This study aimed to compare the effect of Sedamin capsule and inhalation of Lavender smell on sleep quality of patients at the cardiac care unit.
The present study is a randomized clinical trial carried out on 120 patients at the cardiac care unit of Aja hospital (522 Tabriz) during years 2016 and 2017. Patients were categorized to 3 Sedamin and lavender and control groups (without receiving placebo). First, sleep quality of each of the 3 groups was investigated one day after hospitalization by the sleep questionnaire of Petersburg. Then, intervention group 1 received Sedamin capsules for 14 days. Intervention group 2 inhaled lavender for 14 nights. Then, intervention group 3 received no intervention. After the intervention, sleep quality of the 3 groups was studied by a questionnaire at the end of the first and second week. SPSS22 was applied to analyze the data.
Results obtained from the Kruskal-Wallis test represented a significant difference between the 3 groups in terms of sleep quality on the first and second week of intervention (pDiscussion and This study showed that sedamin capsule and inhalation of lavender cause improvement in sleep quality of patients at the cardiac care unit. Therefore, it could be recommended as an effective and cost-efficient method to improve sleep quality.

Nowadays, extensive research is carried out on the effect of plant extracts on variety of disorders. In this study, the effect of hydroethanolic extract of Lavandula officinalis on proliferation of neural stem cells as well as its anti-apoptotic properties was assessed.
Neural stem cells were isolated from hippocampus of neonatal rat brain. To determine the optimal concentration of Lavandula officinalis extract, isolated neural stem cells were treated with 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 µg/ml of concentrate for 48 h. Then cell proliferation rate was evaluated via MTT assay. Meanwhile, the anti-apoptotic property of Lavandula officinalis extract was evaluated using TUNEL assay method.
The results of this study showed a significant difference in cell proliferative and anti-apoptotic property of Lavandula officinalis extract on neural stem cells comparing to the control group.
The hydroethanolic extract of Lavandula officinalis can be effective on proliferation elevation and apoptosis reduction in rat neural stem cells.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of aerobic training with and without lavender consumption on lactate and cortisol levels in non-athlete male students. 37 non-athlete male students (age: 23.13 ± 2.54 yr and body mass index: 22.11 ± 2.77) participated in three experimental groups and one control group. They performed aerobic training with 60-75% of maximum heart rate for 8 weeks (3 sessions per week). Two groups consumed lavender and one of these groups also performed aerobic training. Findings showed a significant reduction in plasma lactate and serum cortisol levels after 8 weeks of aerobic training in all 3 experimental groups with and without lavender. However, these changes were not enough to make significant changes among the groups. Also, no significant differences were observed in plasma lactate and serum cortisol levels of subjects. According to these results, 8 weeks of aerobic training with and without lavender consumption postpones fatigue and improves athletic performance in non-athlete male students through lowering levels of lactate and cortisol.

Human has always introduced various methods to control weeds. One of the best and the most modern methods is to use synthetic herbicides. The synthetic herbicides offer the same advantages compared to the other methods. They are selective, easy to apply, act quickly, relatively inexpensive, and can be used where other methods don’t work well. Therefore, their application have increased dramatically in the agricultural world and generated a series of additional problems such as herbicide resistance in weeds, soil and water pollution and the toxicity effects on human health and non-target species. With increasing global awareness about these disadvantages, the herbicidal potential of natural compound are focused because they have a short half-life and novel sites of action. Many natural compounds taken from many plant species, especially they are aromatic ones, have been studied for their herbicidal potential. For example, sorgoleone, isolated from Sorghum sp.; ailanthone, isolated from Ailanthus sp.; artemisinin, isolated from Artemisia sp.; coumarin, isolated from Ruta sp. and so on (5). The great interests in this field caused that the molecule of leptospermone isolated from Callistemon citrinus was optimized and then commercialized as mesotrione and sulcotrione herbicides (group F2/27) that inhibit p-hydroxyphenyl pyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of carotenoid and plastoquinone (9). Lavender (Lavandula sp.) is a medicinal plant with allelopathic properties which belongs to the Lamiacae family. The substantial components of lavender are made up of coumarin. Despite this, 18 structural analogues of coumarin extracted from lavender, coumarin itself had the most phytotoxic on Lolium sp. (9). The antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal and herbicidal activities were demonstrated by the lavender essence. The current research aimed to determine the allelopathic potential of lavender essence on the germination indices of six plant species.
This study was separately and simultaneously carried out in 6 experiments based on a completely randomized design with four replications, which each one involved with one plant species. In each experiment, the influence of eight concentrations of coumarin including zero (control), 4, 20, 40, 100, 200, 300, and 400 ppm extract were assessed on germination and seedling growth of one plant species. There was 245 ppm coumarin from 100 g leaf of lavender. Weed species included redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album L.), barnyard grass (Echinochloa cruss-gali (L.) Moench), johnson grass (Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers.), common purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.); and corn crop (Zea mays L. cv. Sc 704). The seeds of all weeds were collected from weeds which were around fields located near Mashhad, Iran. The seeds of maize were obtained from the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Mashhad, Iran. Before the start of experiment, the seed dormancy-breaking treatments were conducted to increase the seed coat permeability of weed species. Hence, the seeds of A. retroflexus, C. album, E. cruss-gali, S. halepnse, and P. oleracea were acid-scarified in concentrated sulfuric acid (98%) for 5, 1, 3, 4 and 1 min, respectively; and then rinsed with distilled water. Twenty seeds of each plant species were placed in Petri dish on two layer of filter paper. Petri dishes were transferred into incubator after 10 ml of treatment solutions were added into them. Daily observations were made on the number of seeds germinated in each dish. After 12 days, root and shoot length was measured. Then, they were harvested and oven-dried at 75ºC for a period of 48 h and the dry weight was determined. The data were changed to individual plant and subjected to analyze by both the variance analysis using PROC GLM in SAS software.
Despite the differences between studied plants, the results indicated a high toxicity of lavender extract. All components of germination in all plants were significantly affected by lavender extract. Totally, allelopathic effects of extract from lavender increased with increasing its concentration and caused the germination percentage, the germination rate, the root and shoot length, and the seedling dry weight decreased. Low concentrations of lavender extract led to a stimulatory effect on seed germination common purslane, barnyard grass, johnson grass and corn. The results of this study showed that coumarin has the phytotoxic effect against Z. mays, S. halepnse, E. cruss-gali, A. retroflexus, C. album, and P. oleracea. Generally, Z. mays and P. oleracea were most tolerant and sensitive to coumarin.
The present study concludes that corn and common purslane had the highest and the lowest sensitivity to lavender extract, respectively. However, further studies are required to identify a selectivity index, using dose-response experiments to develop a selective or non-selective natural herbicide.

Different kinds of Lavandula species have been used traditionally throughout history. Lavandula extract (fragment oils of its flowers) is used in blood clotting treatment, neurological diseases and rheumatoid. In this research, the effects of suppress the immunosystem of the BABL/c mice, which were infected by cutaneous leishmaniasis, were studied. Sufficient twigs of Lavender flowers were minced and put in ehanol 80%. They were placed into the stirrer with magnets in room temperature for 24 hours, then separated. This compound was, first, sterilized and prepared as topica with concentration of 40, 60 and 80%. It was refrigerated until used. In the lab, 40 BABL/c mice were infected with the parasite Leishmania (L) major [MRHO/IR/75/ER]. They were divided into four control groups and a group that received 40, 60, and 80% concentration of the Lavandula extract. As soon as the leishmania lesion appeared, Lavandula extract was applied every two days. As well, the foot and size of the lesion were measured, the weight was also taken in all mice in the four groups by using ale and coliss (Mettler, Switzerland) every week. The mean of the measurement and weight of the mice that were received 40 and 60% of the Lavandula extract showed significant difference comparing with the mean of the weight of the mice in control group, but the mean of weight in the mice received 80% of the Lavandula extract did not show significant difference with the weight of mice in control group (P > 0.05). The mean of lesion size of the mice that received 40 & 60 of Lavandula extract showed significant difference with the lesion size in controls groups (P = 0.000), but the lesion size of the mice receiving 80 of the Lavandula extract did not show significant difference with those mice in control groups (P > 0.05). Using of the Lavandula extract, the process of weight decrease of the animal increase, and as much as the concentration of the Lavandula extract increase, the weight of the animal decrease. However, increasing the concentration more than 80%, showed no remarkable increase in weight of the animal. Totaly, in comparing to control group, the process of mortality was increased with weight decreasing and lesion size increasing, in mice receiving Lavandula extract. In addition, the death of the mice receiving Lavandula extract was more than the mice in control groups and their lesion size was wider with severe necrosis.