Chemical composition, angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil from south Tunisian Ajuga pseudoiva Rob. Lamiaceae

The essential oil of Ajuga pseudoiva, collected from Tunisia, was analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Thirty-two compounds accounting for 95.76% of the total oil were identified. Sesquiterpenes were found to be the most abundant components of A. pseudoiva oil. And they were mainly represented by viridiflorol (30.17%), germacrene B (9.26%) (alpha, beta and gamma)-eudesmol (8.11%) and aromadendrene (7.45%). The essential oil of A. pseudoiva showed radical scavengers activity (IC50 = 0.72 mg/mL) and displayed lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.6 mg/mL). A. pseudoiva essential oil was also found to exhibit a dose-dependent ACE inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 65.5 mu g/mL. Moreover, the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was tested against 17 species of microorganisms, and the results obtained showed significant antibacterial activity against the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with inhibition zones and minimal inhibitory concentration values of 14-32 mm and 84-137 mu g/mL and 6-21 mm and 105-336 mu g/mL, respectively. Higher activity was also found against several fungal strains. Crown Copyright (c) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.