Planta Med 2011; 77 - PE49
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282380

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oil of Achillea filipendulina (Asteraceae)

V Kiyanpour 1, A Fakhari 3, B Asghari 1, M Yousefzadi 4
  • 1Department of Phytochemistry, Medicinal Plants and Drugs Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, G. C. Evin, Tehran, Iran
  • 2Department of Technology Incubator Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
  • 3Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, G. C. Evin, Tehran, Iran
  • 4Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Tarbiat Modaress University, Tehran, Iran

There are 19 Achillea species available in the Iranian flora and 7 of them are endemic. Various part of different species of the genus Achillea are widely used in folk medicine due to numerous pharmacological properties, such as antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, antiallergic and antioxidant activities. The antimicrobial activities of the essential oils and various extracts from several Achillea species have been reported before. As far as our literature survey confirms, the antimicrobial activities of leaves and flowers essential oil of Achillea filipendulina Lam. (Asteraceae) have not been studied before. Although there was a report concerning the chemical analysis of flowers essential oil, the chemical composition of leaves oil has not been investigated previously.

The chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oils of the leaves and flowers of Achillea filipendulia were investigated. Essential oils were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC and GC -MS. Overall, 95.3% and 92% of the constituents were characterized for the leaf and flower oils. The main components of the leaves and flowers were: 1, 8-cineole (17.2–19.0%) and chrysanthenyl acetate (18.5–19.3%), respectively. The antibacterial activity of the essential oils against seven gram positive and gram negative bacteria were investigated and high antibacterial activity was observed.

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