Chemical composition and antibacterial properties of essential oil and fatty acids of different parts of Ligularia persica Boiss

Objectives: The objective of this research was to investigate the chemical composition and antibacterial activities of the fatty acids and essential oil from various parts of Ligularia persica Boiss (L. persica) growing wild in north of Iran. Materials and Methods: Essential oils were extracted by using Clevengertype apparatus. Antibacterial activity was tested on two Grositive and two Gramnegative bacteria by using micro dilution method. Results: GC and GC∕MS analysis of the oils resulted in detection of 94%, 96%, 93%, 99% of the total essential oil of flowers, stems, roots and leaves, respectively. The main components of flowers oil were cisocimene (15.4%), βmyrcene (4.4%), βocimene (3.9%), and γterpinene (5.0%). The major constituents of stems oil were βphellandrene (5.4%), βcymene (7.0%), valencene (3.9%). The main compounds of root oil were fukinanolid (17.0%), αphellandrene (11.5%) and Βselinene (5.0%) and in the case of leaves oil were cisocimene (4.8%), βocimene (4.9%), and linolenic acid methyl ester (4.7%). An analysis by GCFID and GCMS on the fattyacid composition of the different parts of L. persica showed that major components were linoleic acid (11.331.6%), linolenic acid (4.721.8%) and palmitic acid (7.223.2%). Saturated fatty acids were found in lower amounts than unsaturated ones. The least minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) of the L. persica was 7.16 μg/ml against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Conclusion: Our study indicated that the essential oil from L. persica stems and flowers showed high inhibitory effect on the Gram negative bacteria. The results also showed that fatty acids from the stems and leaves contained a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).