Wild chamomile (Matricaria recutita L) from the taounate province, morocco: Extraction and valorisation of the antibacterial activity of its essential oils

Abstract

The resistance of micro-organisms, especially bacteria, to antibiotics available in the market is a worldwide problem. In view of this resistance, the main purpose of this research is to extract and study the antibacterial activity of Matricaria recutita essential oils (EOs) of the Taounate region. EOs of M. recutita was extracted by hydrodistillation of the Clevenger type (HC) and microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAH). EOs was extracted by MAH was analysed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to determine its chemical composition, and it was tested against four bacterial strains (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilus and pseudomonas aeruginosa) using the disk diffusion method and the microdilution method. The MAH method provided the highest yield (0.75±0.013%). Furthermore, the results obtained revealed that M. recutita's EOs contains 24 chemical compounds representing 98.49% of the total oils. The majority compounds were Chamazulene (26.11%) and Cis beta farnesene (11.64%). For the evaluation of antibacterial activity, EOs of M. recutita showed significant activity against E. coli (13.27±0.18mm), S. aureus (14.13±0.11mm), B. subtilis (15.2±0.13mm) and P. aeruginosa (13.07±0.09 mm) and with MICs of 8.33, 8.33, 6.25 and 8.33 µL/mL, respectively. The current results suggest that M. recutita’s EOs contain certain antimicrobial properties, and can be used as antimicrobial agents in drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases.