Antibacterial activity of high safrole contain essential oils from Piper xylosteoides (Kunth) Steudel

Abstract

In our continuous search for naturally occurring compounds of scientific and technological relevance, the chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oils of two populations of Piper xylosteoides from Santa Catarina, Brazil, is described. Both oils showed a very high safrole concentration, being the highest value associated to the sample collected in Orleans (84.1%). As the second major compound, the monoterpene α-pinene was present with the highest concentration (15.3%) in the São Bonifácio sample. The antibacterial activity was examined towards both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The oils showed weak activity against the bacteria tested. This species can be considered a new economically important natural source of the arylpropanoid safrole.

Keywords:

• Piper xylosteoides
• essential oil
• safrole
• antibacterial activity

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge a grant from FAPESC and the financial support from FURB. Thanks are due to Marina Beatriz Borgmann da Cunha, M.Sc., English Department (FURB Idiomas) for the English language revision.