Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil of Illicium verum

Abstract

In recent years, a concern has been expressed about the impact of antibiotics and synthetic antioxidants, which are used to inhibit microbial growth and retard fat oxidation in foods. In addition, antibiotic resistance presents a serious menace to human and environmental ecosystems. This has led the food industry to use natural resources such as essential oils in the preparation of foods, this forming their sensory profile and increasing preservation time there. The objective of this work is to determine the chemical composition and evaluate the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of the essential oil of Illicium verum. The yield of essential oil extracted by hydro distillation is about 4.13%. The chemical composition of the essential oil extracted from the dried fruits of Illicium verum was studied by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC and GC/MS). Twenty-eight constituents, representing 99.74% of the essential oil were identified. The major compounds are: trans-anethole (83.46%), D-Limonene (4.56%), Estragole (3.47%) and Linalool (1.07%). Antioxidant activity was determined by the DPPH assay. The essential oils of Illicium verum showed low antioxidant activity with IC50= 286.19 ± 7.4 mg/mL, compared to Ascorbic acid IC50= 0.09 ± 0.01 mg/mL. The antibacterial effect of this essential oil was tested against six microorganisms, of which Staphylococcus aureus is the most sensitive with an MIC of about 1/1000 (v/v), followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis and Enterobacter cloacae with an MIC equal to 1/100 (v/v).

Keywords

• illicium verum
• essential oil
• chemical composition
• antibacterial activity
• antioxidant activity