Chemical Composition and Antibacterial Activities of Essential Oil of Warburgia salutaris (Bertol. f.) Chiov. from South Africa

Abstract

Essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation of the leaves of Warburgia salutaris (G. Bertol.) Chiov., (Canellaceae) was analysed by means of gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The major oil constituents were myrcene (27.5 %), limonene (16.9 %), and (E)-β-ocimene (11.1 %) and (Z)-β-ocimene (9.5 %) among the monoterpenes, with α-humulene (5.6 %) and β-caryophyllene (4.7 %) among the sesquiterpenes. The oil displayed some antimicrobial activities against Bacillus cereus (ATCC 10702), Staphylooccus aureus (ATCC 6538), Staphylooccus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Escherichia coli, (ATCC 8739), Kiebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 10031) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC19582) with MIC 1.3, 0.2, 1.3, 0.3, 2.5, 2.5 mg/mL, respectively.

Keywords:

• Myrcene: Limonene
• trans-β-Ocimene
• Warburgia salutaris
• Antimicrobial