Studies on the Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activity and Chemical Composition of the Essential Oils of Kitaibelia vitifolia

The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential use of the essential oil of Kitaibelia vitifolia Willd. in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oil of K vitifolia isolated by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus were assessed. GC/FID and GC/MS analyses were used to determine the major components of the essential oil as sclareoloxide (cis A/B) 17.9%, sclaral 10.9%, labda-7,13,14-triene 10.6% and sclareol 9.5%. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was evaluated against the bacterial strains: Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 13883, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Proteus vulgaris ATCC 13315, P. mirabilis ATCC 14153, and Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633; and fungal strains: Candida albicans ATCC 10231 and Aspergillus niger ATCC 16404. Antimicrobial activity was tested using a broth dilution procedure for determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The essential oil of K vitifolia showed strong antimicrobial activity. Antioxidant activities of the essential oils were evaluated using the DPPH and hydroxy radical scavenging, lipid peroxidation and metal chelating assays. The results for antioxidant activity were compared with control antioxidants, ascorbic acid, gallic acid, a-tocopherol and BHT. Results showed that the essential oil possesses antioxidant activity, with total antioxidant capacity of 95.4 +/- 0.7 mu g AA/g and IC50 values of 5.45 +/- 1.45 mu g/mL for DPPH free radical scavenging activity, 26.5 +/- 1.6 mu g/mL for inhibitory activity against lipid peroxidation, 79.4 +/- 0.4 mu g/mL for hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, and 39.9 +/- 0.7 mu g/mL for metal chelating activity.