Harmful activities of Micro organisms and essential oil composition of Thymus daenensis Celak from Iran

Abstract

The composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of Thymus daenensis Wild, an endemic 
species from Iran, was studied. The volatile oil obtained by hydrodistillation was characterized by the 
physico-chemical properties, gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry 
(GC/MS) techniques. Thirty compounds, accounting for 97.5% of the total oil, were identified. The main 
constituents were thymol (29.8%) and carvacrol (13.6%), p-cymene (11.3), borneol (6.8%) and 1, 8
cineole (5.89%). The antimicrobial activity of essential oil of T. daenensis was tested against two Gram
negative and Gram-positive bacteria and three fungi by disc diffusion method. The results of the 
bioassays showed the interesting antimicrobial activity, in which the Gram-positive bacteria, 
Staphylococcus aureus, was the most sensitive to the oil, as well the oil exhibited a remarkable 
antifungal activity against all the tested fungi. These results confirm the possibility of using T. 
daenensis in food system, medicine and pharmacy.