Essential Oils from Wild Populations of Algerian Lavandula stoechas L.: Composition, Chemical Variability, and in vitro Biological Properties

Abstract

In an effort to develop local productions of aromatic and medicinal plants, a comprehensive assessment of the composition and biological activities of the essential oils (EOs) extracted from the aerial flowering parts of wild growing Lavandula stoechas L. collected from eleven different locations in northern Algeria was performed. The oils were characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses, and 121 compounds were identified, accounting for 69.88-91.2% of the total oil compositions. The eleven oils greatly differed in their compositions, since only 66 compounds were common to all oils. Major EO components were fenchone (2; 11.27-37.48%), camphor (3, 1.94-21.8%), 1,8-cineole (1; 0.16-8.71%), and viridiflorol (10; 2.89-7.38%). The assessed in vitro biological properties demonstrated that the DPPH-based radical-scavenging activities and the inhibition of the β-carotene/linoleic acid-based lipid oxidation differed by an eight-fold factor between the most and the least active oils and were linked to different sets of molecules in the different EOs. The eleven EOs exhibited good antimicrobial activities against most of the 16 tested strains of bacteria, filamentous fungi, and yeasts, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) ranging from 0.16 to 11.90 mg/ml.

Inhibitory effect of plant essential oils on Malassezia strains from Iranian dermatitis patients

“…Several publications on antifungal activity of the essential oils against Malassezia species were reported in the literature (4,13,14). Our results are consistent with those found by Naeini et al (15) (22). In this study, the mean inhibition zones were found to be 14.4 and 12.4 mm for ketoconazole and fluconazole, respectively.…”

Agronomical evaluation of Sicilian biotypes ofLavandula stoechasL. spp.stoechasand analysis of the essential oils

“…Aromatic species show a high adaptive capacity to various environments, as in the arid and semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean region. The different climatic and soil characteristics of the Mediterranean region influence the chemical composition of the EOs and many authors have found different compositions of EOs for the same species (7,14,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22).…”

“…stoechas from other areas of the Mediterranean [South Sardinia (7), North Algeria (21) and North-East Greece (22)]. We chose these studies for comparison because the authors used similar extraction techniques and plant parts (Table 5).…”

Functional characterization of terpene synthases and chemotypic variation in three lavender species of section Stoechas

“…viridis and L . pedunculata that accumulate one of the richest blends of volatile compounds of all Lavandula species with more than 100 identified substances (Benabdelkader et al ). They are known for the diversity of their chemotypes that sometimes grow sympatrically.…”