Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Evaluation of the Essential Oil of Croatian Salvia brachyodon Vandas | Chapter 06 | Recent Advances in Biological Research Vol. 5
This study was designed to evaluate the
phytochemical profile and the antimicrobial potential of the essential oil of
Salvia brachyodon Vandas growing wild in Croatia. The emergence of multidrug
resistant bacteria has become a serious threat to public health that has
prompted research to the discovery and development of new active agents capable
of partly or completely suppressing bacterial growth. Recently, a class of
biological active compounds that has been attracting increased attention in
drug discovery is the plant based derivatives. Many plants produce special
biomolecules to protect themselves according to a stress or infection caused by
microorganisms. Plants produce a broad assortment of secondary metabolites,
including tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, polyphenols and favonoids, which have
been found in vitro to have antimicrobial properties against both Gram-
positive and Gram- negative bacteria. Essential oils (EOs) are secondary
metabolites, and are important for plant defense mechanism hence, they have
various medicinal properties including antimicrobial activity. Natural products
isolated from Salvia spp. have long been used in traditional medicine to treat
several microbial afflictions, but considering the high number of species of
this genus, the antimicrobial properties of all of them is not well known.
Short tooth sage (S. brachyodon Vandas), an endemic species that grows in the
south east areas of the Adriatic coast in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
Montenegro. It is a perennial plant that grows up to 70-80 cm in height and
flowers from July to September. The phytochemical components of the essential
oil were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis.
The antimicrobial activity was assessed against a panel of representative
Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as fungi. The antimicrobial
activities of the oil against pathogenic microorganisms were determined by
using agar disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods. From the
thirty-eight identified constituents representing 95.7% of the oil, 1,8-cineole
(16.7%), β-pinene (19.7%) and α-pinene (7.6%), were the major components. The
levels of oxygenated monoterpenes such as camphor (5.6%), borneol (4.2%),
myrtenol (2.4 %) and terpinen-4-ol were significant. Other important compounds
were sesquiterpenes hydrocarbons β-caryophyllene (6.6%), α-humulene (4.9%),
viridiflorol (3.0%), spathulenol (2.9%) and aromadendrene. Preliminary
antimicrobial screening revealed that the oil exhibited a very interesting antimicrobial
profile. The oil exhibited moderate in vitro antibacterial activity after it
was tested against twenty pathogenic bacteria and fungal strains, but high
antimicrobial activity observed against medically important pathogens such as
E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes and Candida albicans. Results presented
here may suggest that the essential oil of S. brachyodon possess antimicrobial
properties, and is, therefore, a potential source of antimicrobial ingredient
in food and pharmaceutical industry. The obtained results are preliminary and a
further research is needed in order to obtain information regarding the
practical effectiveness of essential oil to prevent the growth of foodborne and
spoilage microbes under specific application conditions.
Author(s) Details
Dr. M. Skočibušić
Faculty of Science,
University of Split, Croatia.
Mrs. S. Lacić
Faculty of Science,
University of Split, Croatia.
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