engleski

Variability of Satureja cuneifolia Ten. essential oils and antimicrobial activity depending on the stage of development

The essential oils obtained from Satureja cuneifolia Ten. harvested in central part of Dalmatia at three ontogenetic stages were evaluated for their chemical composition and antimicrobial activity against food pathogens. The GC/MS analyses allowed 32 compounds and the main constituents of essential oils were linalool (18.2-17.2%), cavacrol (16.0-5.0%), p-cymene (14.8-4.0%), α -pinene (12.0-5.8%) and limonene (11.0-1.8%). The compounds linalool and borneol appeared to be relativly constant but carvacrol, limonene and α -pinene showed variability during growth cycles. The oils had a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against food pathogens in broth microdilution bioassays. Maximum activity was observed against the yeast Candida albicans, the Gram-negative bacteria Esherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Proteus mirabilis and the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. Essential oils showed good antibacterial effects against E. coli with minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.06% and minimum bactericidal concentration of 0.12% during flowering stage. These inhibitory effects are interesting in relation to the prevention of microbial contamination in many foods and therefore, essential oils of S. cuneifolia could be used as substitutes for synthetic antimicrobial compounds.

Satureja cuneifolia; antimicrobial; food pathogens; essential oil; linalool

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