Chemical composition and biological assays of essential oils ofCalamintha nepeta(L.) Savi subsp.nepeta(Lamiaceae)

Abstract

Aerial parts of wild Calamintha nepeta (L.) Savi subsp. nepeta growing spontaneously on the Mediterranean coast (Sardinia Island, Italy) and on the Atlantic coast (Portugal) were used as a matrix for the supercritical extraction of volatile oil with CO(2). The collected extracts were analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS methods and their compositions were compared with that of the essential oil isolated by hydrodistillation, but the differences were not relevant. A strong chemical variability was observed in the essential oils depending on the origin of the samples. The results showed the presence of two chemotypes of C. nepeta. In all Italian samples, pulegone, piperitenone oxide and piperitenone were the main components (64.4-39.9%; 2.5-19.1%; 6.4-7.7%); conversely, the oil extracted from Portuguese C. nepeta is predominantly composed of isomenthone (35.8-51.3%), 1,8-cineole (21.1-21.4%) and trans-isopulegone (7.8-6.0%). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimal lethal concentration (MLC) were used to evaluate the antifungal activity of the oils against Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Candida krusei, Candida guillermondii, Candida parapsilosis, Cryptococcus neoformans, Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsporum canis, Microsporum gypseum, Epidermophyton floccosum, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus. The Italian oil, rich in pulegone, exhibited significant antifungal activity against Aspergillus and dermatophyte strains, with MIC values of 0.32-1.25 µL mL(-1).

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils of two species of Lamiaceae against phytopathogenic bacteria

“…The main constituents of C. nepeta oils were determined in the previous studies as pulegone (about 50%); menthone (9.4%), limonene (7.0%), menthol (4.6%), piperitenone oxide (4.6%), piperitone oxide (3.9%), and piperitenone (3.4%) by Flamini et al (1999); pulegone (41.0%), menthone (32.0%), piperitone (7.3%) and piperitenone (7.0%) by Couladis and Tzakou (2001) pulegone (75.5%), piperitenone oxide (6.0%), menthone (5.3%) and menthol (4.3%) by Kitic et al (2005); pulegone (76.5%) and piperitone (6.1%) by Schulz et al (2005); pulegone, piperitenone oxide and piperitenone by Marongiu et al (2010). According to previous studies, the essential oils of S. hortensis and C. nepeta contain similar major compounds in spite of differences in their quantity.…”

Essential Oil Extraction, Chemical Analysis and Anti-Candida Activity of Calamintha nepeta (L.) Savi subsp. glandulosa (Req.) Ball—New Approaches

“…Thus, CN is well-known for its medicinal uses as a stimulant, tonic, antiseptic and antispasmodic [11,12,13,14]. The chemical composition of its EO (TEOCG) has been thoroughly investigated [11,12,13,15,16,17,18], as well as its antioxidant [19,20], antimicrobial [14,21,22,23] and anti-inflammatory activities [14]. In the traditional medicine of different countries in the world, CN has also been widely used against insomnia, depression, convulsion and cramps [24] and for the treatment of respiratory and gastro-enteric diseases [14].…”

Essential Oils of Lamiaceae Family Plants as Antifungals

“…1%), Limonene (0.0-13.6%), Isopulegone (0.0-9.4%), Piperitenone (0.0-7.7%), Cinerolone (0.0-5.8%), Isopulegol (0.0-4.1%), Isomenthol (0.0-3.9%), β-Caryophyllene (0.0-3.8%), 3-Octanol (0.0-3.0%), β-Pinene (0.0-2.3%), cis-Piperitone oxide (0.0-2.2%)[41,42] …”