Chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of the essential oils from Pimpinellatragium Vill. subsp. glauca (C. Presl.) C. Brullo & Brullo (Apiaceae) growing wild in Sicily

Abstract

The essential oils from flowers, leaves and stems hydrodistilled from Pimpinella tragium Vill, subsp. glauca were characterised by GC and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis. The C-12 nor-sesquiterpenes are the principal class of metabolites (56.6–70.6%) among which geijerene (28.9÷49.3%) and pregeijerene (10÷19.1%) predominate. Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities were evaluated. The minimum inhibitory concentration values indicate that oil obtained from the stems is the most active for antimicrobial activities and the sample with the biggest antioxidant capacity is the flower oil.

Keywords::

• Pimpinellatragium Vill. subsp. glauca
• essential oils
• C-12 nor-sesquiterpenes
• epoxy-pseudoisoeugenyl-2-methyl butyrate
• antimicrobial
• antioxidant

Acknowledgements

The GC and GC–MS spectra were performed at the ‘C.S.I.A.S.’ of the University ‘Federico II’, Napoli. The assistance of the staff was gratefully appreciated.