Antifungal activity of chemically different essential oils from wild Tunisian Thymus spp.

Abstract

Abstract

Essential oils isolated by using hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of Thymus algeriensis and Thymus capitatus Hoff. et Link. from different locations of Tunisia (Kef, Takelsa, Zaghouan, Fahs and Toukeber) were characterised. The chemical composition was analysed by using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, the major component of T. capitatus from Kef and T. algeriensis was thymol while carvacrol was the main component of T. capitatus from Zaghouan, Fahs and Toukeber. The antifungal activity of the oils and some pure components was assessed by the in vitro assay against several fungi and oomycetes. T. capitatus (chemotype carvacrol) exhibited the strongest antifungal activity followed by T. capitatus (chemotype thymol) and T. algeriensis, indicating that carvacrol might have a stronger antifungal activity than thymol.

Keywords::

• Thymus
• essential oil
• GC/MS
• antifungal
• fungi
• oomycetes

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Hnia Chograni (ESAK) and Dr Ismail Amri (INRGREF) for their help in the GC–MS analysis of the thyme oils.

Notes

This work was presented to the 5th International Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, CIPAM 2014, 17–20 March 2014, Zarzis-Dejerba, Tunisia.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Research and Higher Education for the Laboratory of Genetics and Cereal Breeding of INAT.