Antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of Thymus kotschyanus grown wild in Iran

Abstract

The aims of this study were to extraction and identify the compounds formed and antimicrobial properties of essential oil on Iranian Thymus kotschyanus. Plant essential oil was prepared by a hydro-distillation method using Clevenger-type apparatus and analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for determining their chemical composition. 49 compounds consisting 99.94% of the total components were identified from the essential oil of Thymus kotschyanus obtained. Among those, carvacrol (50.40%), 1, 8 cineole(8%), thymol (6.78%), borneol (6.46%) and E-Caryophyllene (4.35%) were the major oil components. Antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was investigated by micro broth dilution and disc diffusion methods. The results of this study shows that Thymus kotschyanus essential oils have inhibitory effect respectively on yeast, Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria(yeast> Gram-positive bacteria> Gram-negative bacteria).Also, essential oil showed high antimicrobial activity against Candida albicans and Bacilluscereus two medically important pathogens.