Artemisia herba-alba Asso. essential oil antibacterial activity and acute toxicity
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Date
2018-02-27
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elsevier
Abstract
Artemisia herba-alba Asso., known as the desert wormwood, is a medicinal plant and its essential oil is used in
Algerian herbal medicine. In the present study the in vitro antibacterial activity against 21 bacterial strains and
chemical composition of Artemisia herba-alba essential oil were investigated. The acute toxicity by determination
of the median lethal dose was also studied. The results of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of the
essential oil gave 19 compounds accounting for 98.7% and the major constituent was camphor with an amount
of 50.7%. A significant antibacterial effect was observed with important zones of inhibition against Klebsiella
oxytoca (31.3 mm) by disc diffusion method and against Acinetobacter baumannnii (47.6 mm) by microatmoshphere method. The minimum inhibitory concentration and the minimum bactericidal concentration
values were ranging from 5 to 10 mg mL−1 and 10–20 mg mL−1
, respectively. Moreover, their ratio exhibited by
the essential oil was 2. The bactericidal end point was achieved after 24 h of exposure to the essential oil, for all
the bacteria assayed. The oil was slightly toxic with a median lethal dose of 615 mg kg−1
. The results of this
study suggest that the essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba can be a source of natural antibacterial agents with
potential pharmacological applications.