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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter May 15, 2015

Antimicrobial properties and chemical composition of liquid and gaseous phases of essential oils

  • Kamil Křůmal EMAIL logo , Nela Kubátková , Zbyněk Večeřa and Pavel Mikuška
From the journal Chemical Papers

Abstract

The antimicrobial properties of fifteen essential oils (EOs) tested on seventeen microorganisms were determined using the vapour-agar contact method. The most effective EOs (i.e. Lavandula angustifolia, Cymbopogon nardus, Citrus aurantifolia, Juniperus communis, Myrtus communis and Cinnamomum zeylanicum), whose volatile components afforded the best antimicrobial properties, were selected for a detailed study of chemical composition. All these six EOs contained one to three main components that presented 67-91 mass % of total mass of a corresponding essential oil. The amount of other components was much lower (less than 5 mass %). The volatile components of Lavandula angustifolia exhibited the most effective antimicrobial properties because they completely inhibited the tested bacteria and fungi within 3 days and 1 week, respectively. The components of Lavandula angustifolia with the highest concentration in the gaseous phase were linalool (99.0 ppmv), eucalyptol (44.9 ppmv), linalyl acetate (25.9 ppmv), myrcene (22.2 ppmv), β-trans-ocimene (19.7 ppmv), camphor (16.7 ppmv) and limonene (14.9 ppmv).

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Received: 2014-11-27
Revised: 2015-2-21
Accepted: 2015-2-27
Published Online: 2015-5-15
Published in Print: 2015-8-1

© Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences

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