Evaluation of the Antioxidant and Antibiofilm Activities of Rosmarinus Officinalis Essential Oil Extract

Abstract

Biological activities of essential oils from various plants, including Rosemary, have been attributed to thepresence of specific chemical compounds with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.The aim of this study is to estimate the antioxidant and antifungal activity of Rosmarinus officinalis essentialoil extract. The study included the extraction of essential oil using a Clevenger apparatus. The chemicalcompositions were evaluated by GC-MS and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).Therosemary essential oil extract was tested with regard to antioxidant utilizing 2, 2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) assay. Microtiter plate Assay used to determine the antifungal and antibiofilm activity. The resultshowed that the GC-MS analysis revealed that the major components determined in R. officinalis essentialoil were linalool (17.09 %), L- Borneol (11.92 %), Verbenone (8.52 %), camphor (5.30 %), Eucalyptol(4.79 %), while the chemical compositions identified by HPLC shows four phenolic acids were identifiedin the essential oil, Rosmarinic acid, Caffeic acid, p-Coumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and lignans(medioresinol), while Isorhamnetin was the only flavonol detected. The free radicals scavenging activityincreased gradually with the increase in the concentration of essential oil which was 81.59 % whencompared with BHT and V.C (92.34 and 97.42) respectively. The results of the antifungal activity revealedthat Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of C. albicans and C. krusei was 3.125%, while the MIC of C.glabrata was 12.5% in contrast with the highest MIC which recorded for C. tropicalis at 25% of rosemaryessential oil. The current results revealed that the reduction of bofilm formation among C. albicans andC. krusei was obvious at the lower concentration (1.56%), where the percentage of biofilm formation inC. albicans was (91.25%) and C. krusei was (84.25%), while C. tropicalis exhibit (86.32%) for biofilmreduction at the concentration (12.5%) of rosemary essential oil, also it was found that the effect of essentialoil on C. glabrata biofilm formation was at the concentrations 3.125% and 6.25%. The findings of this studyindicated to the significant effect of rosemary essential oil against the growth and biofilm formation of theimportant pathogenic yeast C. albicans at low concentrations.