Chemical Composition, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) Essential Oil

Essential oils, as sources of natural products, represent an alternative to synthetic antioxidants and antimicrobial agents in food and pharmaceutical industry, alternative medicine and natural therapy. Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) belongs to the Lamiaceae family of herbs, which in addition to being used as a spice, is also medicinally known as a powerful antibacterial, antimutagenic and chemopreventive agent. The aim of the present study was to determine chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of essential oil obtained from basil aerial parts (grown in the northwestern Republic of Srpska) by hydrodistillation on semi-industrial level of production. Qualitative and quantitative composition of the oil was determined by GC-MS and GC-FID spectrometry. The antioxidant activity of essential oil was investigated spectrophotometrically by DPPH assay and antimicrobial activity using the agar diffusion method on the following microorganisms: Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus, Providencia stuartii, coagulase-positive Staphylococcus, Streptococcus group D, Salmonella spp. and Candida albicans. The results obtained proved the presence of 65 components, with the highest content of linalool (31.6 %) and methyl chavicol (23.8 %). Essential oil has shown the best antioxidant properties after 90 minutes of incubation with EC 50 value of 2.38 mg/ml. The oil has shown the best antimicrobial activity on coagulase-positive Staphylococcus. Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the investigated basil essential oil indicate a significant phytomedical potential.