Micromeria biflora Benth: Phytochemical Analysis and in vitro Biological Investigations of Essential Oil with Concomitant in silico Molecular Docking, PASS Prediction and ADME/Tox Studies

Abstract

Micromeria biflora Benth. (Lamiaceae) is an important medicinal herb used widely for treating the ailments like nose bleeds, toothaches, wounds, and sinusitis. The essential oil (EO) of Micromeria biflora collected from Bageshwar, Uttarakhand in India was examined by GC and GC/MS, which contributed 97.1% of the total essential oil. The EO was found to be dominated by E-caryophyllene (19.6%), geranial (16.2%), neral (11.5%) and caryophyllene oxide (10.8%). The EO was studied for antioxidant, antiamylase, nematicidal, antifeedant, insecticidal, antimicrobial and herbicidal activities. EO showed excellent insecticidal activity against Lipaphis erysimi with 96.33±0.18% inhibition whereas exhibited moderate mortality (78.66±2.08%) and egg hatchability (26.33±1.20%) against Meloidogyne incognita at 5 μL/mL. The EO was found significant against Raphanus raphanastrum with sprout inhibition of 96.33±0.33%, shoot length inhibition of 93.66±0.33% and root length inhibition of 95.66±0.33%, respectively for herbicidal activity compared to the standard pendimethalin (100.00±0.00%). It showed good to moderate antifungal activities against Curvularia lunata (88.14±0.37%) and Fusarium oxysporum (81.11±1.11%), antibacterial activity against Salmonella typhimurium (18.00±0.57 mm), Escherichia coli (17.33±0.33 mm), Staphylococcus aureus (23.33±0.66 mm) and Bacillus subtilis (18.66±0.33 mm). Similarly, a significant antifeedant activity (97.98%) against Spodoptera litura larvae was observed. The EO was found to show antioxidant and anti amylase activities. The probable mode of action of EO constituents using in-silico molecular docking, PASS prediction and ADME/Tox studies predicted that M. biflora can be a potential bioactive mixture of EO constituents for different biological activities.