Essential oils from Anethum graveolens, Levisticum officinale and Pimpinella anisum hairy root cultures: composition, antibacterial and antioxidant activities

M. M. Costa; S. Bounatirou; M. G. Miguel; M. L. Faleiro; A. C. Figueiredo; J. G. Barroso; L. G. Pedro; S. G. Deans; J. J. C. Scheffer

doi:10.1055/s-2006-950079

Essential oils from Anethum graveolens, Levisticum officinale and Pimpinella anisum hairy root cultures: composition, antibacterial and antioxidant activities

MM Costa ¹, S Bounatirou ², MG Miguel ³, ML Faleiro ³, AC Figueiredo ¹, JG Barroso ¹, LG Pedro ¹, SG Deans ⁴, JJC Scheffer ⁵

¹Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa, DBV, Centro de Biotecnologia Vegetal, C2, Campo Grande, 1749–016Lisbon, Portugal
²Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis el Manar, Campus Universitaire, 2092 Tunis, Tunisia
³Faculdade de Engenharia de Recursos Naturais, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005–139 Faro, Portugal
⁴Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NR, Scotland, UK
⁵LACDR, Leiden University, Gorlaeus Laboratories, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

Abstract

Anethum graveolens L., Levisticum officinale D.W.J.Koch and Pimpinella anisum L. hairy root cultures were maintained at 24°C and 80r.p.m. in five different culture media, under darkness or 16h light photoperiod conditions.

The essential oils isolated by distillation-extraction from these hairy root cultures were studied for their chemical composition, and their antibacterial and antioxidant activities. The oil composition was analysed by GC and GC-MS; the antibacterial activity was tested by the disc diffusion technique-against a Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus (C1060), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC6538) and Listeria innocua (CLF2/95). The antibiotic chloramphenicol was used as control. The antioxidant activity was determined by TBARS, scavenging capacity (DPPH) and reductive potential. Results were submitted to analysis of variance by ANOVA procedures (SPSS12.0 for Windows). Significant differences between means were determined by Tukey's Post Hoc tests; p ≤0.05 was regarded as significant.

Phenylpropanoids were the major components of the oil isolated from the A. graveolens hairy roots, while sesquiterpenes dominated the P. anisum hairy root oils. Depending on the light conditions and culture media tested, L. officinale hairy root oils were dominated by either monoterpenes, polyacetylenes or other components.

L.officinale and P.anisum hairy root oils showed antibacterial activity against some of the tested strains, with inhibition zones smaller than that of the antibiotic. A. graveolens hairy root oils showed antioxidant capacity similar to BHT with the TBARS assay. Although lower than BHA, P. anisum hairy root oils showed best results with the reductive potential evaluation and DPPH test.

Acknowledgments: This study was partially funded by FCT, under research contract POCTI/AGG/42961/2001