Chemical Composition ofRuta chalepensisLeaves Essential Oil and Variation in Biological Activities between Leaves, Stems and Roots Methanolic Extracts

Abstract

To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the biological activities of the methanolic extracts of leaves, roots and stems of Ruta chalepensis L. (Rutaceae) in Tunisia. The chemical composition of the essential oil extracted from R. chalepensis leaves was determined by GC-MS. The antioxidant activities of tested essential oil and the methanolic extracts of leaves, stems and roots of R. chalepensis were evaluated using DPPH and ABTS radicals scavenging tests. Their antimicrobial activities were achieved by disc diffusion method and broth dilution assay. The main components of the selected essential oil were menthol (43.92 %) and linalool (42.10 %). Significant differences were found between the total phenol contents and biological activities of the different parts of R. chalepensis. In addition, significant correlations were observed between antioxidant activities and phenolic contents for methanol extracts. In fact, leaves extract presented higher total phenol content than stems and roots extracts. The tested oil showed better antioxidant activity than methanolic extracts. The highest antioxidant activity was recorded in leaves methanolic extract. The latter showed strong antibacterial activity against tested microorganisms, whereas the evaluated oil remained almost inactive. The inhibition zones diameters and minimal inhibitrice concentration values for tested bacteria, which were sensible to different methanolic extracts, were in the range of 8-35 mm and 0.78-25 mg/ml, respectively. This study demonstrated that the R. chalepensis extract can be regarded as promising candidate for natural plant source of antioxidant and antimicrobial agents.

Variability of Chemical Compositions and Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Ruta chalepensis Leaf Essential Oils from Three Palestinian Regions

“…Another study which was conducted in Tunisia by Tounsi et al, 2011, showed that the leaves of cultivated R. chalepensis contained 2-nonanol as the major active constituents of the essential oil [ 59 ]. Another study conducted also in Tunisia by Ghazghazi et al, 2015, showed that the main chemical constituents of R. chalepensis essential oil were menthol (43.92%) and linalool (42.10%) [ 60 ]. These variations in the phytochemical components may be due to the various geographical locations and climatic and weather conditions from which the R. chalepensis leaves were collected.…”

Ruta Essential Oils: Composition and Bioactivities

“…From the studies on the composition of the essential oils of Ruta species, it appears that these essential oils, unlike many other plant essential oils, generally lack terpene components, but predominantly possess aliphatic ketones and some minor aliphatic alcohols. Based on the studies conducted on the dried or fresh plant materials of Ruta species ( Table 1 ) [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ,…”

“…Based on the studies conducted on the dried or fresh plant materials of Ruta species ( Table 1 ) [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ,…”

Traditional Herbal Medicine in Mesoamerica: Toward Its Evidence Base for Improving Universal Health Coverage

“…Antimicrobial (incl. enteropathogens): a number of in vitro studies demonstrated significant effects of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the leaves and aerial parts as well as the essential oil on a broad range of pathogenic bacteria and fungi (e.g., Alzoreky and Nakahara, 2003;Alanıś et al, 2005;Cho et al, 2005;Haddouchi et al, 2013;Ghazghazi et al, 2015;Kacem et al, 2015;Alotaibi et al, 2018). Antiprotozoal: ethanolic extract of aerial parts showed an IC 50 of 62 mg/ml against Entamoeba histolytica and 38 mg/ml against Giardia lamblia while metronidazole an IC 50 of 0.04 and 0.21 mg/ ml, respectively (Calzada et al, 2006).…”