Chemical compositions, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of piper officinarum (piperaceae)

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the essential oils from Piper officinarum C. DC. GC and GC/MS analysis of the leaf and stem oils showed forty one components, representing 85.6% and 93.0% of the oil, respectively. The most abundant components in the leaf oil were β-caryophyllene (11.2%), α-pinene (9.3%), sabinene (7.6%), β-selinene (5.3%) and limonene (4.6%), while β-caryophyllene (10.9%), α-phellandrene (9.3%), linalool (6.9%), limonene (6.7%) and α-pinene (5.0%) were the main components of the stem oil. The antioxidant activities were determined by using complementary tests: namely β-carotene-linoleic acid, DPPH radical scavenging and total phenolic assays. The stems oil showed weak activity (IC50 = 777.4 μg/mL) in the DPPH system, but showed moderate lipid peroxidation inhibition in the β-carotene-linoleic acid system (88.9 ± 0.35%) compared with BHT (95.5 ± 0.30%). Both oils showed weak activity against P. aeruginosa and E. coli with M IC values of 250 μg/mL.