Essential oils of three species of Heracleum. Anticandidal activity

Abstract

Fruits of Heracleum crenatifolium Boiss., Heracleum sphondylium L. subsp. ternatum (Velen.) Brummitt, and Heracleum platytaenium Boiss. (Umbelliferae) were hydrodistilled to obtain essential oils that were then analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The major component was identified as octyl acetate (93.7, 87.6 and 31.6% respectively). Octyl butyrate was also characterized as the main component in H. platytaenium oil. Furthermore, anticandidal activity of the oils was evaluated using the microdilution broth method. All the oils showed good inhibitory effects against C. glabrata.A rapid increase is observed in the number of Candida infections on people with compromised immune systems such as cancer and AIDS patients. Infections are usually difficult to eradicate completely in patients receiving antifungal agents continuously for long periods of time [1,2]. Anticandidal drugs such as fluconazole have been reported to cause resistance [3].Previously, antifungal resistance used to be rare on Candida species; however, at present resistance is a very serious problem. Furthermore, Candida species other than C. albicans have, in recent years, shown to be responsible for fungemia. C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis, and C. glabrata infections are more common now than before [4].Since the antimycotic activity of plants remains largely unexplored, interest has grown in the search for anticandidal agents from plants [5]. Our group has previously reported on the occurrence of over 5.000 natural compounds with anticandidal activity [6].Here we report on anticandidal effects of the fruit essential oils of Heracleum crenatifolium Boiss., Heracleum sphondylium L. subsp. ternatum (Velen.) Brummitt, and Heracleum platytaenium Boiss. Heracleum crenatifolium is an endemic plant and this is the first report on its essential oil composition and anticandidal activity. The essential oils were analyzed using both gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) techniques.The composition and relative percentages of individual components of the oil were determined by chromatographic and spectroscopic means. Major components were identified as octyl acetate (93.7, 87.6 and 31.6% respectively) for each essential oil. In the oil of H. platytaenium, octyl butyrate (37.8%) was the main component. Complete GC/MS analysis of the oils will be reported elsewhere [9]. Main components in the oils are shown in Table 2. Results of anticandidal assays are given in Table 3.The essential oils did not show outstanding inhibitory effect. They showed moderate activity (MIC values 0.25 to 1.0 mg/mL) against most Candida species. However, their effect was close to that of the standard antifungal agent ketoconazole on Candida dubliniensis and Candida glabrata. The anticandidal effects were better expressed on C. glabrata.Our group has previously reported on the antimicrobial activity of H. sphondylium subsp. ternatum (collected from another region) essential oil that has 1-octanol (50.3%) as the main component [10]. The oil was shown to inhibit Can...

Toxicological and behavioral effects of some plant extract on Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, 1824 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

“…The H. platytaenium extract had the greatest ovicidal effect in the single dose ovicidal test. A previous study on chemical components of H. platytaenium essential oil revealed that its essential oil contains isopropyl butyrate, octanal, heptyl acetate, hexyl butyrate, octyl acetate, (Z)-4-hexenyl butyrate, decanal, octanol, hexyl hexanoate and octyl butyrate (Iscan et al, 2004). Among these components, octyl acetate was the most abundant (Kürkçüoğlu et al, 1995) and is well known for being detrimental to insects (Carroll & Berenbaum, 2002).…”

Chemical Composition and Antibacterial Activity of Essential Oils from Flowers, Seeds and Stems ofHeracleum rechingeri (Manden) from Iran

“…* Diameter of inhibition zones (mm) including diameter of sterile disk (6mm) (-), Inactive (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderately active (>14), highly active…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, although the essential oil composition of different members of Heracleum and their related antibacterial activity have been reported [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] , there have been no attempts to study the chemical composition and antimicrobial properties of the essential oils of flowers, seeds and stems of H. rechingeri which grows in Iran. Gas chromatography.…”

Chemical composition, allelopatic and antimicrobial potentials of the essential oil ofZosima absinthifolia(Vent.) Link fruits from Iran

“…A comparison of our results with the literature showed that there is a considerable similarity among the essential oil of Z. absinthifolia and different species of Heracleum, such as H. crenatifolium Biss., H. platytaenium Boiss. and C. sphondylium L., whose fruit oils were comprised of octyl acetate as a characteristic component (Iscan, Ozek, Ozek, Duran, & Baser, 2004;Tosum et al, 2008). Hence, there is no chemotaxonomic significance in oil composition for the establishment of a distinction between Zosima and Heracleum genera.…”

“…It was shown to inhibit bacteria and fungi growth, with an MIC value of 400-500 mg mL À1 (Cseke et al, 2006;Iscan et al, 2004). Thus, the strong antimicrobial effects of Z. absinthifolia fruit oil could be primarily due to the presence of 1-octanol in the oil.…”