Antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of some commercial essential oils

✍ Scribed by M. Tiziana Baratta; H. J. Damien Dorman; Stanley G. Deans; A. Cristina Figueiredo; José G. Barroso; Giuseppe Ruberto

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 383 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0882-5734
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1026(1998070)13:4<235::aid-ffj733>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

The essential oil composition of Cananga odorata, Boswellia thurifera, Cymbopogon citratus, Marjorana hortensis, Ocimum basilicum, Rosmarinus ocinalis, Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Citrus limon was analysed by GC and GC±MS, and their antimicrobial and antioxidant activity tested. Twenty-®ve dierent genera of bacteria and one fungal species were used in this study as test organisms. These included animal and plant pathogens, food poisoning and spoilage bacteria and the spoilage fungus Aspergillus niger. The volatile oils exhibited considerable inhibitory eect against all the tested organisms. The oils also demonstrated antioxidant capacities, comparable with a-tocopherol and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The method adopted in this study was the modi®ed thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) assay. The antioxidant activity was carried out under dierent conditions by using egg yolk and rat liver in the absence and presence of the radical inducer 2,2 H -azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (ABAP).