Planta Med 2008; 74 - PI24
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084932

Cytotoxicity, antimicrobial activity and composition of essential oil from Tanacetum balsamita L.subsp. balsamita

SN Ebrahimi 1, M Yousefzadi 2, A Sonboli 3, F Miraghasi 2, S Ghiasi 2, N Mosaffa 2
  • 1Department of Phytochemistry, Medicinal Plants and Drugs Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
  • 2Research Institute of Applied science, ACECR, Shahid Beheshti University., Tehran, Iran
  • 3Department of Biology, Medicinal Plants and Drugs Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

The aerial parts of Tanacetum balsamita subsp. balsamita were collected at full flowering stage from Tabriz, Iran [1]. The essential oil was isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by combination of capillary GC and GC-MS [2]. Twenty seven components were identified, representing 99.2% of the total oil. Carvone (51%), β-thujone (20.8%), 1,8-cineole (4.4%) and α-thujone (3.2%) were the main components. The in vitro antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of T. balsamita subsp. balsamita was studied against eight Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, B. pumulis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae) and three fungi (Candida albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus niger). The results of the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil according to the disc diffusion method and MIC values indicated that the oil exhibited moderate to high antimicrobial activity. The data showed that S. epidermidis, B.pumulis and B.subtilis were the most sensitive microorganisms to the oil with the inhibition zones 35, 34 and 31mm and MIC values of 0.93, 0.93 and 1.87mg/ml, respectively.

P. aeruginosa and A. niger were the most resistant strain to the essential oil. In contrast to antibacterial activity, the oil exhibited slight antifungal property and S. cerevisiae was more sensitive to oil than others. The in vitro toxicological study based on the MTT cytotoxicity assay on human fetal skin fibroblast (HFSF) and Monkey kidney (vero) cell lines showed IC50 values of 2500 and 1250µg/ml, respectively.

References: 1. Mozaffarian V. (1996) A Dictionary of Iranian Plant Names. Farhang Moaser, Tehran, Iran.

2. Adams R. P. (2001) Identification of essential oils components by gas chromatography/quadrupole mass spectroscopy. Allured Publishing Co., Illinois, USA.