The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of different extraction methods and chemical composition of the essential oil and solid-phase microextraction (SPME) from Rhododendrum caucasium Pall. The volatiles of R. caucasicum have been isolated by hydro distillation (HD) and SPME. The compositions of the volatiles were characterized by GC-FID/MS. A total of twenty-five and thirty-one compounds were identified constituting over 89.25%, and 90.33% of volatiles obtained with HD and SPME, respectively. The main volatile constituents of R. caucasicum were found to be calarene (46.13% (HD) and 54.91% (SPME)) and sandaracopimaradiene (25.93% (HD) and 8.16% (SPME)). Furthermore, the obtained essential oil (EO) and solvent extracts (n-hexane and methanol) of R. caucasicum were tested against the following nine bacteria: Escherichia coli, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Candida albicans, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The EO showed moderate antimicrobial activities with the inhibition zone from 6 to18 mm against E. faecalis, S. aureus, B. cereus and M. smegmatis, respectively. Methanol extract gave better antimicrobial activity against the P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis, S. aureus, and B. cereus with the almost 15 mm inhibition zones.

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Rapidly increasing industrialization and technological developments cause hazardous wastes to spread to the environment at a high rate. When heavy metal accumulation in water and soil reaches undesirable levels, it causes universal health problems to occur and threaten societies. For this reason, there is a need for alternative biological control methods and biological resources to prevent heavy metal pollution, especially in soils used for agriculture. In our study, three bacterial (112O1, 5O1, 5O8) strains isolated from the rhizoid region of the orchid plant (Dactyloriza urvilleana) were characterized by conventional and molecular methods (nuclear 16S rDNA intragenic gene regions sequence analysis). In order to characterize the isolates, primarily macroscopic, microscopic, some biochemical and physical properties were determined. The usability of the strains screened for their general properties as bioremediation strains, in the prevention of high copper accumulation in agricultural soils was investigated. For this purpose, especially metal tolerance levels and plant growth promoting properties were examined in the laboratory environment. With traditional and molecular studies, two of the strains were defined as species level (Bacillus mycoides, B. popilliae) and one at genus level. It was determined that all strains were tolerant to the tested metal salts (Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb and Ag salts in the 1-10 mM range) except 5O1 Ag, and 112O1 Zn salt. The highest copper tolerance was observed in 5O1, 112O1 and 5O8 strains, respectively. The strains were determined that the copper MIC values were 12.5-25 and the MBC value was 50 mM / L. It gave good results in terms of properties such as IAA, ACC Deaminase, phosphate solubility that stimulate plant growth. When the germination success of corn seeds in the presence of copper was examined, it was concluded that positive results were obtained, there was no significant difference between strains and therefore strains could be used in copper bioremediation.