Chemical composition, antimicrobial and antileishmanial activity of essential oil of Juniperus excelsa M.Bieb. from Ziarat, Balochistan
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Abstract
Essential oils isolated from leaves, barriers and from their mixture of Juniper (Juniperus excelsa M.Bieb) growing in Ziarat district. Essential oils were obtained by Clevenger-type apparatus, and components identified by gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). A total 27 components were identified which were inconsistent in their composition in the essential oils of J.excelsa, where five major variable components were: limonene (15.5-28.59%), followed by α-pinene (5.01-14.04%), cedrol (4.68-14.5%), δ-elemen (6.9-13.01%) and δ-cadinene (5.2-12.06%). Essential oils were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against five bacterial species by disk diffusion method. J. excelsa essential oils showed antibacterial activity against tested organisms whilst the highest inhibition zone was observed for E. coli. Antileishmanial activity of essential oils isolated from juniper leaves, barriers and their mixture were also determined by using different concentration from (0.01ng/ml to 100 μg/ml). The IC50 value of all three essential oils were 0.0065 μg/ml, 0.0088 μg/ml and 0.0093 μg/ml respectively and demonstrated almost 100 times more antileishmanial activity in comparison to the standard Amphotericin B.
Keywords: Juniperus excels; Antimicrobial activity; Antileishmanial activity; Essential oil composition