Chemical Composition of Leaf Essential Oil of Juniperus phoenicea and Evaluation of its Antibacterial Activity

In this work, the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oils obtained from Juniperus phoenicea were determined. Juniperus species from the Cupressaceae family are widely distributed in Morocco. In this study, the essential oils of J. phoenicea collected from Atlas median in the region of Boulmane (Morocco) were obtained by hydro-distillation of the aerial parts and analysed by gas chromatography equipped with flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometry system (GC/MS) for their chemical composition. Their antibacterial activity was studied in vitro on seven bacterial strains: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staph. intermedius, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus mutans. Twenty tree compounds were identified in leaves oil representing 81.87% of the total oil composition. The yield of essential oil of J. phoenicea was 1.62% and the major compound in aerial parts was a-pinene (49.15%) followed by a-phyllandrene (7.39%), mycene (5.24%), p-pinene (3.58%), linalool (2.54%), piperitone (1.56%), y-terpinene (1.28%), Trans-pinocarveole (1.23%) p-cymene (1.10%), a terpineol (1.02%) and y-cardinene (1.01%). The bacterial strains tested were found to be sensitive to essential oils studied and showed a very effective bactericidal activity with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) ranging from 0.02 to 0.40 mg per mL. © 2010 Friends Science Publishers