Chemical constituents and antimicrobial ability of essential oil from the fruits of Lonicera maackii (Rupr.) Maxim.

Abstract

Essential oils are the natural products that can pave the way for the creation of effective drugs with various beneficial properties. Plants of Lonicera maackii are well known in the natural growth regions of temperate Asia due to therapeutic effects and a high content of the bioactive compounds. Species diversity of steppe vegetation is enriched by the introduction of plants, but the assessment of this process effectiveness should also take into account the realization of plant genetic potential for the accumulation of secondary metabolites in the new growth conditions. The aim of the work was to establish whether the plants of L. maackii introduced in the steppe zone could reproduce the health promoting properties. The essential oil from the fruits of L. maackii was obtained by hydro distillation method. Chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions isolated from the aqueous distillate of L. maackii fruits were analyzed by gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS analysis). Chemical constituents identified in ethyl acetate and chloroform fraction represented 98.6% and 94.2 % of the total compounds content, respectively. Among the most abundant components were hexadecane, acetic acid, butyl ester, hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester, linoleic acid, and linoleic acid methyl ester in the and the alkanes heptacosane, hexadecane, and tetradecane in chloroform fraction. Linoleic acid and some minor constituents of L. maackii fruit essential oil, such as ethyl-isoallocholate, arachidic acid, linalool and d-mannitol-1-decylsulfonyl are well known because of their reported bioactivities. The antimicrobial activity of essential oil was assessed against several clinical and collection bacterial and fungal strains. The results of disc-diffusion assays showed low to moderate activity of L. maackii fruit essential oil against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains, as well as against fungal itraconazole-resistant clinical strain of Candida albicans. Thus, the essential oil derived from Lonicera maackii fruits may serve as potential resource of bioactive compounds having beneficial properties, in particular, the ability to overcome the resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to drugs. Further research is needed to identify the full range of bioactivities of the essential oil obtained from honeysuckle fruits.