EVALUATION OF CARDAMOM OIL ROLE AS ANTIMICROBIAL ANTICARCENOGENIC AND ANTI- INFLAMMATORY AGENTS

Abstract

Separation and identification of cardamom volatile oil obtained by steam distillation were conducted using GC and GC/MS. The fatty acid composition of cardamom fixed oil was also determined. The volatile and fixed oils were tested for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus ochraceus. The cytotoxic and anticancer activities of the volatile oil were also evaluated. A comparative study of the antiinflammatory activity of the cardamom volatile oil at 100 mg/kg body weight and the diclofenac at 3 mg/kg against acute carrageenan which induced rat hind paw oedema was also performed. The obtained results revealed that volatile oil represents ~5% of the seed contents and 24 constituents were identified in the free volatile fraction from 55 separated components of total fractions. The major fractions of cardamom volatile oil were 1,8-cineole (37.28%), terpinyl acetate (18.55%) and endobornyl acetate (11.96%). It was also observed that the volatile oil was rich in oxygenated compounds and poor in terpene hydrocarbons. The volatile oil of cardamom seeds was more effective in inhibiting the growth of the microbial species examined than fixed oil. The inhibitory effect of volatile oil against some pathogenic fungi was increased as volatile oil concentration increased and had highly inhibitory effect on the selected pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, it had a highly cytotoxic and anticarcinogenic activities against human tumour cell lines. The cardamom volatile oil had a noticeable effect as antiinflammatory agent.