Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of the Leaf and Twig Essential Oils of Magnolia hypolampra Growing in Na Hang Nature Reserve, Tuyen Quang Province of Vietnam

Abstract

The leaf and twig essential oils of Magnolia hypolampra, growing wild in Na Hang Nature Reserve, Tuyen Quang province of Vietnam, were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The oil yield calculated on a dry weight basis from leaves of M. hypolampra was very high (1.62%, v/w), while that from twigs was much lower (0.07%, v/w). The essential oils were dominated by monoterpenoids (74.3% and 84.8%) and sesquiterpenoids (24.4% and 13.3%) with β-pinene (36.5% and 41.3%), α-pinene (23.7% and 24.4%), and germacrene D (14.6% and 5.8%) as respective major components. Antibiotic activity of the essential oil samples was tested against Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, and yeast Candida albicans using an agar disk diffusion method. Both the leaf and twig oils showed strong inhibition against all 3 tested microorganism strains with inhibition zones from 18.5 to 30.5 mm and from 45.5 to 46 mm, respectively. Minimum inhibitory concentration of the essential oils was determined using microdilution broth susceptibility assay against 7 test microorganism strains including Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus fermentum, Salmonella enterica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 3 abovementioned strains. Minimum inhibitory concentration values of the essential oil from the twigs were from 2.0 to 8.2 mg/mL, while those from the leaves were from 4.1 to 16.4 mg/mL.