Comparative analysis of essential oil components of two Daucus species from Algeria and their antimicrobial activity

Abstract

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from leaves and stems of Algeria native, Daucus carota L. subsp. carota and Daucus carota L. subsp. gummifer were analyzed by GC and GC-MS. In total, 67 compounds, which accounted for more than 90.0 g/100g of the total composition of the oils, have been identified. �-pinene (26.0-34.1 g/100g), sabinene (1.5-14.0 g/100g ), limonene (0.5-13.0 g/100g), �-pinene (0.6-11.2 g/100g), myrcene (10.0-13.1 g/100g), terpinene-4-ol (2.4-4.9 g/100g), caryophyllene oxyde (0.8-6.0 g/100g), spathulenol (0.6-4.3 g/100g), p-cymene (3.3-4.4 g/100g) and isiospathulenol (0.2-3.8 g/100g) have been identified as the main components of both essential oils. The comparison of essential oil components of Daucus species between the present and previous work indicated that the composition of oils vary greatly with respect to the plant parts used, geographical locations and stage of development, mainly for the proportion of terpenoids and phenylpropanoids. In addition, we reported for the first time, the antibacterial activity of D. carota L. subsp. gummifer essential oil against eight bacteria. The most prominent inhibitory action of this essential oil was observed against Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli strains at a concentration of 2.5 mg/ml. The essential oil compositions of two Daucus samples can therefore be proposed as new potential sources natural for pharmaceutical industries.