Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils from Scabiosa arenariaForssk. Growing Wild in Tunisia

Abstract

The essential oils isolated from three organs, i.e., fruits, stems and leaves, and flowers, of the endemic North African plant Scabiosa arenaria Forssk. were screened for their chemical composition, as well as their possible antibacterial, anticandidal, and antifungal properties. According to the GC‐FID and GC/MS analyses, 61 (99.26% of the total oil composition), 79 (98.43%), and 51 compounds (99.9%) were identified in the three oils, respectively. While α‐thujone (34.39%), camphor (17.48%), and β‐thujone (15.29%) constituted the major compounds of the fruit oil, chrysanthenone (23.43%), together with camphor (12.98%) and α‐thujone (10.7%), were the main constituents of the stem and leaf oil. In the case of the flower oil, also chrysanthenone (38.52%), camphor (11.75%), and α‐thujone (9.5%) were identified as the major compounds. Furthermore, the isolated oils were tested against 16 Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria, four Candida species, and nine phytopathogenic fungal strains. It was found that the oils exhibited interesting antibacterial and anticandidal activities, comparable to those of thymol, which was used as positive control, but no activity against the phytopathogenic fungal strains was observed.

Botanical and Genetic Identification Followed by Investigation of Chemical Composition and Biological Activities on the Scabiosa atropurpurea L. Stem from Tunisian Flora

“…In particular, dihydroactinidiolide was only detected in VF2 with a content equal to 26.1%. Most of these compounds were reported in essential oils extracted from S. arenaria [ 29 ] and Scabiosa flavida [ 30 ]. However, the GC-MS profiling of the S. stellata lipophilic extract from Algeria showed sitosterol, ursolic acid, and oleanolic acid as the most abundant terpenes [ 31 ].…”

“…The fresh stems of annual Scabiosa speeding in the province of Kondar (35°55′58′′ N latitude, 10°18′00′′ E longitude) from the Tunisian Sahel, situated about 30 km from the north-west of Sousse governorate, were harvested during May 2017, when the plant was flowering. The species identification was based on shape and morphological features of Scabiosa leaves, flowers, and fruits, compared to scientific botanic illustrations [ 22 , 29 , 30 ]. Moreover, a genetic characterization using bio-molecular tools were applied to plant fresh material in order to confirm genus and species identification.…”

Effects of cold-storage facility characteristics on the virulence and sporulation of Penicillium expansum and the efficacy of essential oils against blue mold rot of apples

“…A. herba-alba essential oils from Spain, Morocco and Algeria also contain a high amount of chrysanthenone (Vernin et al, 1995;Salido et al, 2004), which shows antimicrobial properties (Griffin et al 1998). Chrysanthenone and camphor have been reported in other essential oils as potential antimicrobial components (Zuzarte et al, 2009;Besbes et al, 2012;Pirbalouti et al, 2013;Mahilrajan et al, 2014). On the other hand, stimulation effects of terpenoid compounds on fungi are unusual.…”

Bioactivities and Health Benefits of Wild Fruits

“…The 16 Gram (+) and Gram (−) bacteria and four Candida species were used. The oils exhibited significant inhibitory activities against these bacterial and Candida species, superior to thymol, which was used as a positive control [107]. …”