Evaluation of drying effect on the composition of the essential oil isolated from aerial parts of Pituranthos chloranthus from southern Algeria and their biological activities

Abstract

Abstract To evaluate the influence of the drying on the content and quality of essential oils extracted from aerial parts of Pituranthos chloranthus cultivated in Zelfana (Algeria). The chemical composition of hydro-distilled oil samples was investigated by GC/MS and GC-FID. The antimicrobial activities were assessed against four pathogenic bacteria including (Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus feacium, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium); and one yeast (Candida albicans) by using the disk diffusion method while the antioxidant activity was evaluated using DPPH and β-carotene-linoleic acid assays. Eighteen constituents were identified, representing 99.49% of fresh plants oil and 89.74% of dry parts. The essential oil of fresh herb was characterized principally by cis-β-ocimene, myristicin, a-phellandrene, limonene and sabinene, the principal constituents of dry herb was the myristicin, limonene, sabinene, terpinen-4-ol, butylidene dihydro-phthalid and cis-β-ocimene. This Minor changes might be attributed to the effect of drying in the volatile constituents of essential oils. Our results clearly exhibit that this essential oils have a weak antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms strains tested but it showed a strong Antifungal activity against C. albicans. Also, the tests confirmed the significant antioxidative capacity of this essential oil.