Antioxidative and antimicrobial screening of 19 commercial essential oils in Turkey

Abstract

Plant oils have been used for wide variety purposes for many years in Turkey. These essential oils have usage in many areas such as perfumery, cosmetic, food flavoring and folkloric medicine. In the study, 19 commercial essential oils were studied by means of antibacterial and antioxidant capacity. Antibacterial test was performed against S. aureus, S. epidermidis, K. pneumoniae and E. coli using standard disc diffusion method. Penicillin, gentamicin and vancomycin discs were also included. Inhibition zones (mm) were recorded to indicate antibacterial property. Penicillin (44 mm) and vancomycin (14 mm) could inhibit only S. aureus. Except essential oils of Juniperus nana (Ardiç), Ocimum basilicum (Feslegen), Urtica dioica (Isirgan), Foeniculum vulgare (Rezene) ressential oils indicated antimicrobial activity against some of the test microorganims. The most active essential oil was found as Thymus serpyllum (Kekik). It indicated highest inhibition zones for other microorganisms among others. Antioxidant capacities were measured using photochemiluminescence (PCL) method. The highest antioxidant activity was measured for Dianthus caryophyllus (Karanfil) as 547.781 103 ug trolox/mL of oil. It was followed by Thymus serpyllum (Kekik), Lilium candidum (Zambak) and Matricaria chamomilla (Papatya). Especially, Thymus serpyllum and Dianthus caryophyllus have significant antimicrobial and antioxidant capacity therefore it could be suggested for further investigations and applications.