chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oil of thymus algeriensis wild-growing in libya

 

the composition of essential oil isolated from thymus algeriensis growing wild in libya was analyzed by gc and gc-ms. the essential oil was characterized with thymol (38.50%) as the major component. the oil was screened for antioxidant activity using dpph assay, and compared to thymol and carvacrol. antioxidant activity was high, with the ic50 of 0.299 mg/ml, compared to 0.403 and 0.105 mg/ml for thymol and carvacrol, and 0.0717 mg/ml for bha. in addition, antimicrobial activity was tested against eight bacteria and eight fungi. t. algeriensis oil showed inhibitory activity against tested bacteria at 0.001–0.05 mg/ml, while bactericidal activity (mbc) was achieved at 0.0025–0.05 mg/ml. for antifungal activity mics ranged 0.0005–0.025 mg/ml and mfc 0.001–0.05 mg/ml. high antimicrobial activity against the fungi in particular suggests that the essential oil ofthymus algeriensis could have a useful practical application.