Journal of ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY
Journal of Ethnopharmacology 76 (2001) 183—186
www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm
Antibacterial and antifungal activity of the essential oils of
Thymus revolutus Celak from Turkey
S. Karaman a,*
M. DIGRAK, U. Ravid b, A. Ilcim aa Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Faculty of Science, Biology Department K. Maras, Turkey
b Department of Aromatic, Medicinal and Spice Crops, ARO, Newe Ya ‘or Research Center, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
Received 20 September 2000; received in revised form 13 February 2001; accepted 3 April 2001
Abstract
The chemical composition of the volatile constituent from flowering parts of Thymus revolutus C., an endemic plant of Turkey, were analysed by GC/MS. Twenty-two components were identified, and carvacrol was found as a predominant compound in the oil. Furthermore, the essential oil was tested against 11 bacteria and four fungi at different concentrations. Results showed that the oil exhibited a significant antibacterial and antifungal activity. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Antifungal activity; Antimicrobial activity; Carvacrol; Essential oils; Lamiaceae; Thymus revolutus
Thymus revolutus Celak
1. Introduction
2. Material and method
The genus Thymus (Lamiaceae) is represented in Turkey by 39 species and 59 taxa, and the ratio of endemism in the genus is 53% (Tumen et al., 1998). Thymus oil is widely used as an antiseptic agent in many pharmaceutical preparations and as a flavouring agent for many kinds of food products (Papageorgio, 1980). The genus Thymus has numerous species and varieties, and their essential oil compositions have been studied earlier (Papageorgio, 1980; Baser et al., 1992, 1998; Vila et al., 1995; Guillen and Manzanos, 1998; Lozeine et al., 1998; Saez, 1998; Tumen et al., 1998) is an endemic species in The Turkey that grows on open rocky and gravelly ground. plant is a dwarf shrub with leaves that are lanceolate—falcate with revolute margins, and the inflorescence is a compact conical head with purple corolla (Davis, 1982).
This paper reports the results of GC/MS analyses and the antibacterial and antifungal perspectives of the essential oil from aerial parts of T. revolutus C., the activities of which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been studied previously.
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* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sengulnacar@yahoo.com (S. Karaman).
0378-8741/01/S - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. P11: S0378-8741(01)00238-0
2.1. Plant material