Abstract
The chemical composition of the volatile oil obtained by two different extraction methods from the air dried aerial parts of Anthemis pseudocotula Bioss. growing wild in Saudi Arabia was investigated. The volatile constituents obtained by Solid Phase Micro-extraction (SPME) and hydro-distillation using Clevenger type apparatus were determined with the aid of Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometric (GC-MS) technique. The SPME oil was dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes that accounted for 51.46 % of the total volatile content, represented basically by thujol (23.63 %). On the contrary, the hydro-distilled oil contained oxygenated sesquiterpenes as the main constituents (48.47 %) with spathulenol (10.98 %) as the main component. The essential oil, the aqueous and the hydro-alcoholic extracts of the aerial parts of the plant were investigated for their antibacterial activity against some selected species. All extracts were found to be inactive against the tested organisms.