Essential Oils of Medicinal Plants from the Central Andes of Argentina: Chemical Composition, and Antifungal, Antibacterial, and Insect‐Repellent Activities

Abstract

The antifungal, antibacterial, and insect-repellent activities of the essential oils (EOs) of Acantholippia seriphioides, Artemisia mendozana, Gymnophyton polycephalum, Satureja parvifolia, Tagetes mendocina, and Lippia integrifolia, collected in the Central Andes area, province of San Juan, Argentina, were investigated. The dermatophytes Microsporum gypseum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, and T. rubrum were inhibited by the EOs of G. polycephalum, L. integrifolia, and S. parvifolia, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) between 31.2 and 1000 μg/ml. Moreover, all EOs presented moderate activity against the bacteria tested, and the L. integrifolia and G. polycephalum EOs showed excellent repellent properties against Triatoma infestans, the Chagas disease vector, with repellency values between 60 and 100%. The A. seriphioides, G. polycephalum, and L. integrifolia EOs, obtained by hydrodistillation, were characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. The highest number of components (40) was identified in L. integrifolia EO, which, along with that of A. seriphioides, contained important amounts of oxygenated monoterpenes (44.35 and 29.72%, resp.). Thymol (27.61%) and carvacrol (13.24%) were the main components of A. seriphioides EO, and borneol, lippifoli-1(6)-en-5-one, and terpinen-4-ol (>8.5%) were the principal compounds of L. integrifolia EO. These results support the idea that oxygenated monoterpenes are the bioactive fractions of the EOs. Finally, the study shows that these Andean species might be used to treat superficial fungal infections and to improve the local Chagas disease situation by vector-control.

Chemical composition and pharmacological properties of the essential oils obtained seasonally fromLippia thymoides

“…Hieron. (Lima et al, 2011), 1,8-cineole at 40% in L. multiflora (Avlessi et al, 2005), and 17% in L. graveolens (Rivero-Cruz et al, 2011). Recently, Cruz et al (2014) reported that the concentration of major constituent from Lippia gracilis Schauer showed little variation between seasons, demonstrating the stability of the chemical composition of the essential oils even with different climatic conditions, confirming the findings of this work and indicating that this behavior could possibly be a characteristic of the species Lippia.…”

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“…The first group is abundant in soils and is normally associated with decomposing keratinous structures such as hair, feathers, fur, and horns. On the other hand, zoophilic and antropophilic fungi have a more specific distribution and infect animals and humans, respectively 11 . Species of the genera Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton (Fig.…”

“…Species of the genera Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton (Fig. 1) are responsible for common infections in the skin and appendages, generally called dermatophytosis or ringworm infections 11,12 . These fungi colonize keratinized human or animal tissues causing an infection that may vary from mild to very intense.…”

“…In addition, in recent years, infections have increased considerably among pediatric and geriatric populations 15,16 . Cutaneous dermatophytosis are usually documented by their scaly patches, with central clearing and sharply demarcated, annular, erythematous, sometimes presenting vesicles, blisters and pustules 11 .…”

“…Among the zoophilic species most commonly involved in these infections are Superficial mycosis (e.g. Tinea pedis, T. mannum, T. corporis and T. cruris) usually react to topical antifungals 3,11,23 . Among all the three genera of dermatophytes, Trichophyton is most prevalent strain responsible for dermatophytosis.…”