Antimicrobial Activity of the Essential Oils Obtained from Flowering Aerial Parts of Centaurea lycopifolia Boiss. et Kotschy and Centaurea cheirolopha (Fenzl) Wagenitz from Turkey

Abstract

The genus Centaurea L. (Asteraceae) is widely distributed in Turkey and used as folk remedies for their several biological effects. In the present study hydrodistilled essential oils of Centaurea lycopifolia and Centaurea cheirolopha were analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques, simultaneously. Caryophyllene oxide (13.4 %), spathulenol (12.1 %), phytol (6.3 %), hexadecanoic acid (6.1 %) and nonacosane (6.1 %) as the main constituents of C. lycopifolia oil, while hexadecanoic acid (25.8 %), heptacosane (10.8 %), tetradecanoic acid (8.1 %), nonacosane (7.7 %) and phytol (7.4 %) were the main constituents of C. cheirolopha essential oil. The oils of C. lycopifolia and C. cheirolopha were subjected to a screening for their antibacterial activities by using broth microdilution technique. The oils demonstrated weak to moderate antibacterial effects against the tested pathogenic bacteria strains with the MIC values between 4000 to 125 mu g/mL.