Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils and Phenolic Extracts from the Aerial Parts of Ruta montana L. of the Middle Atlas Mountains-Morocco

This present study is a contribution to the phytochemical and biological valorization of essential oils and extracts of Ruta montana L., collected in the Boulemane region. The essential oils extracted by hydrodistillation yielded 1.60 +/- 0.08 % and their analysis by GC/MS made it possible to identify thirty-two components with the dominance of 2-undecanone (82.62 %), 2-undecanol (2.87 %) and 2-undecanol acetate (2.13 %). Phytochemical screening of aerial parts of Ruta montana L. revealed the presence of alkaloids, mucilages, triterpenes, sterols, flavonoids, leucoanthcyanes, gallic and catechin tannins, as well as combined anthracene derivatives. Phenolic compounds of Ruta montana were extracted by Soxhlet and by maceration with yields of 17.92 +/- 0.90 % and 11.03 +/- 0.55 % respectively. Quantitative analysis of total phenols and flavonoids showed that the hydromethanolic extract obtained by Soxhlet is very rich in total phenols (33.684 +/- 1.684 mg GAE/g extract) and flavonoids (0.843 +/- 0.042 mg QE/g extract). The antioxidant activity evaluated by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl test (DPPH), showed that essential oil has a high antioxidant potential of which IC50 = 548.5 +/- 27.4 mu g/ml. Antimicrobial testing of essential oils and extracts of R. montana was conducted on twenty-eight bacterial and twelve fungal strains. Essential oils showed strong antibacterial and antifungal activity. These results suggest that this species could be used economically as a valuable bioproduct with new functional properties in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.