Aromatic plant species of genus Thymus are important medicinal plants, highly recommended due to a range of therapeutic properties of their essential oil (thyme oil): antirheumatic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antimicrobial, cardiac, carminative, diuretic and expectorant. Oil is also beneficial in boosting the immune system, and helps to fight colds, flu, infectious diseases and chills. It is proved to be a urinary antiseptic, being very helpful for cystitis and urethritis. Scientific validation of traditional uses, and phytochemical and bioactivity evaluation of essential oils from Thymus serpyllum, Thymus algeriensis and Thymus vulgaris was performed.
GC/MS analysis revealed thymol as major component of T. algeriensis, T. vulgaris and T.serpyllum, with a contribution of 56.02%, 48.92% and 38.50%, respectively. The three essential oils (EOs) exhibited a significant antimicrobial activity against all the tested strains, T. serpyllum oil being the most potent (MIC 2.5-5 µg/mL, MBC 5-10 µg/mL; MIC 1-2 µg/mL, MFC 2-4 µg/mL). In addition, T. serpyllum oil revealed the highest antioxidant activity in all the assays and was also the most effective one against all the tested cell lines, presenting GI 50 values of 7.02-52.69 µg/mL. Moreover, the EOs did not show any toxicity, at the tested concentrations (<400 µg/mL), for porcine liver primary cell culture. In addition to their traditional use in food and cosmetics, the great potential of the tested Thymus essential oils for application in oral disease and anticancer treatments, encourage further investigation.