No abstract

One of the main factors affecting historical art crafts material is the biodeterioration performed by bacteria and fungi, in archives, museums or private collections. Several microorganisms cause degradation to the natural organic material such as fibers, woods, and dyes as well as to stone objects. These alterations produce deterioration of physical, chemical, mechanical and esthetic properties. Consequently, in this publication, we report the high antibacterial and antifungal activities of wild thyme essential oil, oil that can be used as an alternative natural tool in the fight against microorganisms affecting historical art crafts.Essential oil of the Thymus capitatus growing wild in northern Sicily has been extracted by hydrodistillation from aerial parts collected at different growth times. The constituents of the essential oil have been characterized by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry.

In this study the chemical composition of the essential oil from aerial parts of Moluccella spinosa L. collected in Sicily was evaluated by GC and GC-MS. The main components of M. spinosa L. were α-pinene (26.6%), caryophyllene oxide (16.8%) and β-caryophyllene (8.6%). A comparison with other studied oils of genus Moluccella is made. Antibacterial and antifungal activities against some microorganisms infesting historical textiles were also determined.

No abstract

Aromatic plants can interfere in the Mediterranean ecosystem, mainly by the introduction in the environment of volatile compounds. For this reason, we studied the chemical composition and the possible phytotoxic and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil extracted from leaves of Tunisian Artemisia herba-alba Asso. The chemical composition of the essential oil, obtained by hydrodistillation, was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. In all, 24 compounds were identified. The main components were camphor (39.1.%), chrysanthenone (15.0%) and cis-thujone (7.8%). The essential oil was evaluated for its in vitro phytotoxic activity against germination and initial radical growth of Raphanus sativus L., Lepidium sativum L., Sinapis arvensis L., Triticum durum L. and Phalaris canariensis L. seeds. The radicle elongation of the five seeds was affected to different extents by the oil, while germination was not affected. The oil, when tested against eight selected bacterial strains, showed low antimicrobial activity. The chemical composition of the oil of A. herba-alba can help in the chemosystematics of this complex genus. However, the recorded biological activities seem to be neither ecologically nor medicinally significant.