Fatty Acid Composition, Essential Oil and Antibacterial Activity of Berries of Laurus nobilis L.

Fruits of Laurus nobilis L. growing wild in different stations of Tunisia and Algeria were analysed for their fixed oil and essential oil composition. Fixed oil was extracted in Soxhlet apparatus by using hexane as solvent. The yield values were found approximatively the same for the fruit of the different stations. Fatty acids composition of the fixed oil was determined by using combined techniques of HPLC and GC. Fatty acids composition of L. nobilis were found as 54 % for satured fatty acids and 46 % for unsatured acids. Essential oils, isolated by hydrodistillation, from different parts of the berries (seeds and pericarp) of L. nobilis were analyzed by GC-MS and the main components were: 1,8-cineole, (E)-beta-ocimene, alpha-terpinyl acetate, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and beta-longipinene. The yields in essential oil range between 0.6 - 1.2 % by weight for seeds and 0.8 - 1.1 % for pericarps. Study of the chemical composition indicate a small variability of the volatile oil and fixed oil between the different stations whereas big differences in the composition was observed for the seeds and pericarp.