Chemical composition and in vitro antibacterial activity of the essential oil off Calycolpus moritzianus (O. Berg) Burret from Merida, Venezuela

The chemical constituents of the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the leaves of Calycolpus moritzianus (O. Berg) Burret, syn Psidium caudatum Me Vaught, collected in November 2006 in Merida State,Venezuela, were identified by GC-MS analysis. Thirty components (91.1% of the sample) were identified, of which the seven major ones were beta-caryophyllene (21.9%), alpha-pinene (10.9%), viridiflorol (9.7%), beta-selinene (6.1%), alpha-copaene(6.3%), alpha-selinene (5.3%) and gamma-eudesmol (5.1%). The oil was found to have antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC (6538) and Enterococcus faecalis ATCC (29212), with MIC values of 60 mu g/mL and 180 mu g/mL, respectively.