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Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of the Essential Oils of Two Saltcedar Species from Tunisia

  • Original Paper
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Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society

Abstract

The chemical composition of the volatile constituents from the flowering parts of Suaeda fructicosa and Limonium echioides were analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Sixty-five compounds were identified in L. echioides aerial parts. 48 out of 65 were found common to the aerial part of S. fructicosa. Palmitic acid was found as a predominant compound in both tested halophytic oils. Furthermore, the essential oil was tested against six bacteria and four fungi at different concentrations. Both oils, tested at 0.5 and 0.8 mg ml−1, inhibited the visible growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium, but no antibacterial effect was detected against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Additionally, both halophytic oils failed to show antifungal activity against all the test fungi when applied at 80, 200 and 500 μg/disc.

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Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to Dr. Fethia Harzallah Skhiri (High Institute of Biotechnology of Monastir, Tunisia) for the botanical identification and Prof. Amina Bakhrouf (Laboratory of Environment Microbiology. Faculty of Pharmacy, Monastir, Tunisia) for assistance in antibacterial experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Genome, Diagnostic and Valorisation, Faculty of Pharmacy, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Dhouha Saïdana, Olfa Boussaada & Ahmed Noureddine Helal

  2. Laboratory of Natural Substances Chemistry and Organic Synthesis, Faculty of Sciences, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Samia Mahjoub, Mohamed Ali Mahjoub, Imed Chéraif & Zine Mighri

  3. Laboratory of Environment Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Jihane Chriaa

  4. Laboratory of Phytopathology, The Regional Pole of Agricultural Research-Development, Chott, Mariem, Sousse, Tunisia

    Majda Daami

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  1. Dhouha Saïdana
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  2. Samia Mahjoub
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  9. Ahmed Noureddine Helal
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Correspondence to Zine Mighri.

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Saïdana, D., Mahjoub, S., Boussaada, O. et al. Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of the Essential Oils of Two Saltcedar Species from Tunisia. J Am Oil Chem Soc 85, 817–826 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-008-1251-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-008-1251-9

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