Biological Activities of the Essential Oil and Methanol Extract of Achillea biebersteinii Afan. (Asteraceae)

Authors: ÖZLEM BARIŞ, MEDİNE GÜLLÜCE, FİKRETTİN ŞAHİN, HAKAN ÖZER, HAMDULLAH KILIÇ, HAKAN ÖZKAN, MÜNEVVER SÖKMEN, TÜLİN ÖZBEK

Abstract: The present work examined the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the essential oil and methanol extract from Achillea biebersteinii Afan. (Asteraceae). The essential oil exhibited antimicrobial activity against 8 bacteria, 14 fungi and the yeast C. albicans, whereas methanolic extract remained inactive. The antioxidative capacity of the samples was evaluated by using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and b-carotene/linoleic acid assays. In both assays, the extract showed better antioxidative capacity than the oil. The extract reduced the stable free radical DPPH with lower IC50 value (89.90 µg/ml) than the oil (8900 µg/ml). In the b-carotene/linoleic acid assay, the samples were not effectively able to inhibit the linoleic acid oxidation, exhibiting only 22.7% (the extract) and 16% (the essential oil) inhibitions at 2 mg/ml, far below than that of BHT (97.0%). Total phenolic constituent of the extract was 51 µg/mg (5.1%, w/w) as gallic acid equivalent. GC-MS analysis of the essential oil resulted in the identification of 64 components representing 92.24% of the oil. Piperitone, camphor and 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol) were the main constituents.

Keywords: Achillea biebersteinii, Antimicrobial activity, Antioxidant activity, GC-MS analysis, piperitone, camphor, eucalyptol

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