Study of the Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of the Essential Oil of Mentha suaveolens Ehrh from Morocco

Abstract

Mentha suaveolens Ehrh is a plant that belongs to the lamiaceae family. It is widely used in traditional medicine because of its various therapeutic properties. The main objective of this study is to identify the chemical composition of the essential oil (EO) of M. suaveolens Ehrh, and to assess its antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The EO of the aerial parts of M.suaveolens Ehrh, is extracted by hydrodistillation, using a Clevenger type apparatus, The percentage yield of this EO is 4.32 % ± 0.21 (W/W or V/V) of the dry weight. The activity of the EO was evaluated against nine bacterial strains, which are responsible for digestive infections including: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli (Resistant and Susceptible), Staphylococcus aureus BLACT, Enterococcus faecalis, Serratia fonticola, Acinetobacter baumannii, klebsiella oxytoca, Enterobacter-aerogenes. Two yeasts which are Candidas albicans, Candidas glabrata, and a mold Aspergillus niger. The GC/MS analyses made it possible to identify, from the EO of M. suaveolens Ehrh, 30 chemical compounds among which the main compounds are piperitenone oxide (71.50 %) and 4aα,7α,7aβ-Nepetalactone (4.21 %). The obtained results revealed that the essential oil of M. Suaveolens showed a strong activity against K. pneumoniae, E. coli (Resistant and Susceptible), E. faecalis, S. fonticola, A.baumannii and K. oxytoca. However, it is inactive against S. aureus BLACT, E. aerogenes and P. aeuroginosa. Moreover, this EO has a strong activity against both Candidas species and A. niger. In addition, the essential oil of M. Suaveolens Ehrh has a very important antioxidant power, its free radical inhibitory concentration IC₅₀ is of 90 μL/mL.

Keywords:

• Mentha suaveolens Ehrh
• Essential oil
• chemical composition
• Antibacterial activity, Antioxidant activity