Abstract
The chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil from the aerial parts of Pyrethrum pulchrum Ledeb. were investigated. Dried plant material was hydro-distillated yielding 0.1% of essential oil. The oil was analyzed by GC-MS techniques. Fifty-five compounds were identified representing 99.7% of the total oil composition. Camphor was the predominant compound (33.9%) followed by linalool (21.1%) and α-pinene (9.0%). The antimicrobial activity of the oil was determined using the disk diffusion method against Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis), Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli), Mycobacterium vaccae and fungi (Candida albicans, Sporidiobolus salmonicolor and Penicillum notatum). The essential oil of P. pulchrum displays an intermediate activity against selected bacteria.
Highlights
The Asteraceae known as Compositae or sunflower family, comprises of the largest family of flowering plants with over 1900 genera and ca. 40000 species [1]
Tanacetum has been used as medicinal plants for over 2000 years [5] and it is a known remedy for the treatment of many diseases, including women’s ailments, psoriasis, toothache, insect bites, rheumatism, asthma, vertigo and migraine prophylaxis [6, 7], while Pyrethrum is used for treating various inflammatory disorders, wound, anthrax, bone fractures as well as reducing fever [8, 9]
No previous studies have been reported neither on the phytochemical analysis of P. pulchrum nor on its biological activity. This is the first report on the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil from P. pulchrum growing in Mongolia
Summary
The Asteraceae known as Compositae or sunflower family, comprises of the largest family of flowering plants with over 1900 genera and ca. 40000 species [1]. The genus Tanacetum Ledeb., formerly Pyrethrum Zinn, is a large, poorly defined classification group in the Asteraceae containing 150-200 species distributed over West Asia and Europe [2, 3] Many species of this genera have traditionally been used as a spicy additive for food, in cosmetics and as herbal remedies due to their biologically active compounds [4]. 1,8-cineole, α-thujone, carvone, thymol, trans-sabinyl acetate, borneol, caryophyllene oxide, (E)-myroxide, sabinene, bornyl acetate, isopulegone, artemisia ketone, limonene, and camphene were identified as the main constituents of Tanacetum species essential oils [3,11] It is well known, this genus is found to contain sesquiterpene lactones, a large group of molecules with several biological activity [11]. Ciprofloxacin (5 μg·ml-1 in deionized water) and amphotericin B (10 μg·ml-1 in DMSO/MeOH 1:1) were used as reference compounds against bacterial and fungal strains, respectively
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