Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and... more
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic industries to find natural preservative alternatives to synthetic ones.
Aims: To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies of combinations of essential oils (EOs) and essential oils and hydrosols (HDs) of Lippia alba, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris.
Methods: The EOs and HDs were characterized by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Then, they were screened against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the microdilution method for the four first strains and the agar diffusion method for Aspergillus niger. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using ABTS method.
Results: Interactions between essential oils, and essential oils and hydrosols were found to be as microbicide, and for the first time, antioxidant using the fractional inhibitory concentration. When compared with individual EOs, EO-EO combinations diminished the microbicide minimum concentration.
Conclusions: The Thymus vulgaris EO-HD combination, in comparison with individual extracts, diminishes by four times the MBC against Escherichia coli and decrease by half their antioxidant capacity.
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and... more
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic industries to find natural preservative alternatives to synthetic ones. Aims: To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies of combinations of essential oils (EOs) and essential oils and hydrosols (HDs) of Lippia alba, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris. Methods: The EOs and HDs were characterized by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Then, they were screened against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the microdilution method for the four first strains and the agar diffusion method for Aspergillus niger. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using ABTS method. Res...
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and... more
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic industries to find natural preservative alternatives to synthetic ones. Aims: To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies of combinations of essential oils (EOs) and essential oils and hydrosols (HDs) of Lippia alba, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris. Methods: The EOs and HDs were characterized by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Then, they were screened against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the microdilution method for the four first strains and the agar diffusion method for Aspergillus niger. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using ABTS method. Res...
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed to determine the chemical composition of essential oil obtained from Eucalyptus globulus and Trachyspermum ammi. The essential oil obtained from leaves of Eucalyptus globulus and... more
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed to determine the chemical composition of essential oil obtained from Eucalyptus globulus and Trachyspermum ammi. The essential oil obtained from leaves of Eucalyptus globulus and from seeds of Trachyspermum ammi by Clevenger apparatus. Chemical composition of the essential oils of E. globulus and T. ammi was analyzed by Gas chromatography – Mass spectrometry. Four main compounds in E. globulus were identified as Eucalyptol, Methyl –salicylate, Thymol, Para- cymene. 1, 8-cineole was found to be the main compound of E. globulus essential oil. Thymol, gamma- terpinene, para- cymene, beta- pinene were the main compounds of T. ammi oil and traces amount of beta myrcene, alpha- thujne, alpha- pinene, alpha- terpinene, carvacrol compounds of T. ammi were identified by GC-MS. Thymol was the main compound of T. ammi oil. The antifungal activity of E. globulus and T. ammi oils were screened against Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Epidermatophyton floccosum by using disc diffusion and modified micro dilution method. T. ammi oil shows highest inhibition zone in comparison to E. globulus oils and references antibiotics i.e. Clotrimazole and Ketoconazole.
This study aimed to screen the in vitro antimicrobial activity of 10 plant essential oils against 4 Cronobacter sakazakii strains, and use these oils or their combination to control C. sakazakii cocktail at low (3 log 10 CFU/ml) and high... more
This study aimed to screen the in vitro antimicrobial activity of 10 plant essential oils against 4 Cronobacter sakazakii strains, and use these oils or their combination to control C. sakazakii cocktail at low (3 log 10 CFU/ml) and high (6 log 10 CFU/ml) contamination levels in reconstituted infant milk formula (RIMF). Cinnamon and fir oils were the most inhibitory to C. sakazakii strains with inhibition zone of 32 to 40 mm at 20 μl/disc (the minimum inhibitory concentrations were 0.16 and 0.625 μl/ml, respectively). The addition of each of cinnamon or fir oil at 1 % (v/v) reduced the C. sakazakii numbers in RIMF by 0.7-0.8 log 10 CFU/ml when inoculated with high contamination level and by 2.5-3.1 log 10 CFU/ml when inoculated with low contamination level. However, the combination of cinnamon and fir oils reduced C. sakazakii numbers at both inoculum levels to undetectable levels after 3 h of incubation at 37 °C. The results of the current study indicated that a combination of cinnamon and fir oils has a potent antimicrobial activity which may potentially be used to control C. sakazakii in RIMF.
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and... more
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic industries to find natural preservative alternatives to synthetic ones. Aims: To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies of combinations of essential oils (EOs) and essential oils and hydrosols (HDs) of Lippia alba, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris. Methods: The EOs and HDs were characterized by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Then, they were screened against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the microdilution method for the four first strains and the agar diffusion method for Aspergillus niger. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using ABTS method. Res...
Background: Plant-based traditional system of medicine continues to play an important role in healthcare. In order to find new potent source of bioactive molecules, we studied the cytotoxic activity of the essential oils from the flowers... more
Background: Plant-based traditional system of medicine continues to play an important role in healthcare. In order to find new potent source of bioactive molecules, we studied the cytotoxic activity of the essential oils from the flowers and leaves of Callistemon citrinus. This is the first report on anticancer potential of essential oils of C. citrinus.
Methods Cytotoxicity of essential oil was evaluated using sulfo-rhodamine B (SRB) assay against human lung carcinoma (A549), rat glioma (C-6), human colon cancer (Colo-205) and human cervical cancer (SiHa) cells. Apoptosis induction was evaluated by caspase-3/7 activity which was further confirmed by western blotting. Percentage cell apoptosis was determined by Annexin V based dead cell assay followed by DNA content as cell cycle analysis against A549 and C-6 cells. While 3-(4,5-dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to check the toxicity against normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), the immunomodulatory activity on mouse splenocytes was evaluated using SRB assay.
Results The GC and GC-MS analysis of these essential oils revealed high content of α-pinene (32.3%), limonene (13.1%) and α-terpineol (14.6%) in leaf sample, whereas the flower oil was dominated by 1,8-cineole (36.6%) followed by α-pinene (29.7%). The leaf oil contained higher amount of monoterpene hydrocarbons (52.1%) and sesquiterpenoids (14%) as compared to flower oil (44.6% and 1.2%, respectively). However, the flower oil was predominant in oxygenated monoterpenes (43.5%). Although both leaf and flower oils showed highest cytotoxicity on A549 cells (61.4%±5.0 and 66.7%±2.2, respectively), only 100 μg/mL flower oil was significantly active against C-6 cells (69.1%±3.1). Interestingly, no toxicity was recorded on normal cells.
Conclusion Higher concentration of 1,8-cineole and/or synergistic effect of the overall composition were probably responsible for the efficacy of flower and leaf oils against the tested cells. These oils may form potential source of natural anti-cancer compounds and play important role in human health.
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and... more
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic industries to find natural preservative alternatives to synthetic ones. Aims: To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies of combinations of essential oils (EOs) and essential oils and hydrosols (HDs) of Lippia alba, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris. Methods: The EOs and HDs were characterized by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Then, they were screened against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the microdilution method for the four first strains and the agar diffusion method for Aspergillus niger. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using ABTS method. Res...
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and... more
Context: Essential oils (EO) are commonly extracted from plants by steam distillation in which an aqueous phase called hydrosol (HD) is obtained. Unlike EO, hydrosol studies have been limited despite the interest of the food, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic industries to find natural preservative alternatives to synthetic ones. Aims: To evaluate the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies of combinations of essential oils (EOs) and essential oils and hydrosols (HDs) of Lippia alba, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris. Methods: The EOs and HDs were characterized by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Then, they were screened against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the microdilution method for the four first strains and the agar diffusion method for Aspergillus niger. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using ABTS method. Res...
This study aimed to screen the in vitro antimicrobial activity of 10 plant essential oils (EOs) against 4 Cronobacter sakazakii strains, and use these oils or their combination to control C. sakazakii cocktail at low (3 log10 CFU/ml) and... more
This study aimed to screen the in vitro antimicrobial activity of 10 plant essential oils (EOs) against 4 Cronobacter sakazakii strains, and use these oils or their combination to control C. sakazakii cocktail at low (3 log10 CFU/ml) and high (6 log10 CFU/ml) contamination levels in reconstituted infant milk formula (RIMF). Cinnamon and fir oils were the most inhibitory to C. sakazakii strains with inhibition zone of 32 to 40 mm at 20 µl/disc (the minimum inhibitory concentrations were 0.16 and 0.625 µl/ml, respectively). The addition of each of cinnamon or fir oil at 1% (v/v) reduced the C. sakazakii numbers in RIMF by 0.7-0.8 log10 CFU/ml when inoculated with high contamination level and by 2.5-3.1 log10 CFU/ml when inoculated with low contamination level. However, the combination of cinnamon and fir oils reduced C. sakazakii numbers at both inoculum levels to undetectable levels after 3 h of incubation at 37°C. The results of the current study indicated that a combination of cinn...
Cereals are staple food for many countries and are grown on millions of hectares of land, but much of the harvest is wasted due to losses by pests. To minimize these losses, many pesticides are used which are damaging to the environment... more
Cereals are staple food for many countries and are grown on millions of hectares of land, but much of the harvest is wasted due to losses by pests. To minimize these losses, many pesticides are used which are damaging to the environment and human health. There are debates to get rid of these chemicals but they are still in use at large scale. An alternative control strategy for insect pests in storage houses is the use of botanicals. In this study, four plant essential oils, two plant extracts, two herbicides, and two insecticides were used against Tribolium confusum and the comparison of toxicity was made by calculating LC50 and LT50 values. LC50 values were higher for abamectin (2.09–10.23 mg/L) and cypermethrin (3.41–11.78 mg/L) insecticides followed by neem essential oil (7.39–19.24 mg/L) and citrus extract (10.14–24.50 mg/L). However, LC50 values were maximum in case of jaman plant extract (22.38–176.42 mg/L) followed by two herbicides, Logran (19.66–39.72 mg/L) and Topik (29.09–47.67 mg/L) However, LC50 values were higher for topic herbicide (24.098 ppm) and jaman essential oil (16.383 ppm) after four days of treatment. Abamectin and cypermethrin insecticides, neem essential oil and citrus plant extract also killed adults of T. confusum quicker as compared other essential oils, extracts and herbicides. Results revealed that botanical formulations being environmentally safe could be used instead of highly hazardous pesticides for stored products’ pests. This study also elaborates the non-host toxicity of herbicides commonly applied in our agroecosystem.
Ascosphaera apis is one of the major fungal pathogens of honey bee broods and the causative agent of Chalkbrood disease. The factors responsible for the pathogenesis of Chalkbrood disease are still not fully understood, and the increasing... more
Ascosphaera apis is one of the major fungal pathogens of honey bee broods and the causative agent of Chalkbrood disease. The factors responsible for the pathogenesis of Chalkbrood disease are still not fully understood, and the increasing resistance of A. apis to commonly used antifungal agents necessitates a search for new agents to control this disease. The in vitro antifungal activities of 27 plant essential oils against two isolates of A. apis (Aksu-4 and Aksu-9) were evaluated. Out of the 27 plant essential oils tested, 21 were found to be effective in killing both isolates of A. apis. Based on their minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values, the effective oils were grouped into three categories: highly effective, moderately effective and minimally effective. Mountain pepper oil, Kala Bhangra oil, spearmint oil, babuna oil, betel leaf oil, carrot seed oil, cumin seed oil and clove bud oil were highly effective, with MBC values between 50.0 lg/mL and 600.0 lg/mL. Mountain pepper was the most effective essential oil, with an MBC value of 50.0 lg/mL. Citral and caryophyllene containing oils were the most effective with MIC 50 ppm. The essential oils tested exhibited significant antimicrobial activities against both strains of A. apis, and they may contain compounds that could play an important role in the treatment or prevention of Chalkbrood disease of honeybee
