Determination of Antimicrobial Activities of Essential Oils of Different Thyme Species Grown in Çanakkale Conditions

Abstract

Turkey is one of the leading countries in the trade of medicinal and aromatic plants due to its geography, and while exporting many medicinal plants, it also imports many plants. Thyme is often used as a spice in meat, fish and many other dishes due to its aromatic properties. It is a scientific fact that the essential oils in thyme have a strong antimicrobial effect. Thymol, which gives the distinctive smell of thyme, is an advanced antimicrobial agent. For this reason, it is recommended by many scientists to use thyme in the preservation of ready-made foods and disinfection of foods. It is an important plant for the country's economy, as it is an important medicinal aromatic plant and meets a large part of the thyme used in the world. Thyme, which is obtained by collecting from nature and cultivating in our country, has been an important research topic for scientists and many positive results have been obtained and continue to be achieved. This research was carried out at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Agriculture in 2021 in order to reveal the effect of essential oils obtained from 3 different thyme grown in Çanakkale conditions on 4 different bacteria. As research material, essential oils of Izmir thyme (Origanum onites), Istanbul thyme (Origanum vulgare) and medical thyme (Thymus vulgaris) were obtained by hydro-distillation method, and the anti-bacterial activities of these essential oils were determined against the determined bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter cloacaurmicium, Salmonella typhimurium. The antimicrobial activities of essential oils were determined by the disc diffusion method. As a result, according to the data obtained from all thyme essential oils, while all of them showed an antimicrobial effect on bacteria, the most antimicrobial activity was seen in O. onites and O. vulgare essential oils, while the least antimicrobial activity was seen in T. vulgaris essential oil. It showed the best activity in Origanum vulgare, especially on S. aureus (42 mm) and S. typhimurium (39 mm) bacteria. In the study, T. vulgaris had low activity against P. aeruginosa with an inhibition diameter of 19 mm.