Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oil of Heracleum rechingeri Manden from Iran

Abstract

The chemical composition of the essential oil from Heracleum rechingeri was analysed using GC-MS. Twenty-seven compounds, accounting for 94.62% of the extracted essential oil, were identified. The main oil compounds were octyl acetate (29.49%), elemicine (23.06%), (E)-caryophyllene (9.26%), caryophyllene oxide (6.42%), terpinolene (6.12%) and (Z)-3-octenyl acetate (4.72%). The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was tested against three different bacteria by disc diffusion method and showed maximum inhibitory activity against Gram-positive bacteria, especially Bacillus subtilis.

Keywords:

• Heracleum rechingeri
• Apiaceae
• antibacterial activity
• Staphylococcus aureus
• octyl acetate

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr V. Mozaffarian (Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran) for helpful assistance in collecting plant material and for botanical identification. Also we would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Research Council of Shahid Beheshti University.