Composition and Antibacterial Activity ofAchillea chrysocomaEssential Oil

Balkans' Asteraceae Species as a Source of Biologically Active Compounds for the Pharmaceutical and Food Industry

Herbal drugs are a useful source of different bioactive compounds. Asteraceae species, as the most widespread vascular plants, can be used both as food and as medicine due to the great diversity of recorded chemical components - different phenolic compounds, terpenes, carotenoids, vitamins, alkaloids, etc. The Balkan Peninsula is characterized by great diversity of plants from Asteraceae family, including presence of rare and endemic species. In this review, results of the survey of chemical composition and biological activity, mainly focusing on antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer effects of selected Balkans' Asteraceae species were provided. In addition, information on edible plants from Asteraceae family is presented, due to growing interest for the so-called 'healthy diet' and possible application of Balkans' Asteraceae species as food of high nutritional value or as a source of functional food ingredients.

Chemotaxonomic Significance of the Balkan Achillea Volatiles

The present review describes and discusses the chemistry and chemotaxonomic implications, as well as hypothetical biogenetic considerations, of the essential oils isolated from 23 taxa of Balkan Achillea using multivariate statistical analysis.

Analysis of aroma and phenolic components of selected Achillea species

Dried flowers and leaves of four different Achillea species grown wild in several provinces of Iran, including one species collected from three different locations of Isfahan province were analyzed for the headspace volatile components, total phenolics (TP) and tartaric esters (TE). Capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) combined with a purge and trap method was used for quantification of aroma components. Over 70 compounds were determined in the samples. Flower samples from all species contained 2-methyl butanal, alpha-pinene, alpha-thujene, camphene, hexanal, beta-pinene and 1,8-cineole; however, the major constituents of the aerial parts were determined as alpha-pinene, camphene, DL-limonene and 1,8-cineole. The largest number of aroma components were found in Achillea tenuifolia Lam. and Achillea millefolium L. In all species, except A. millefolium, the leaves contained more TP and TE than flowers. However, A. wilhelmsii from Semirom in Isfahan province showed the highest values for TP and TE.

Antimicrobial activity of essential oil and methanol extracts ofAchillea sintenisiiHub. Mor. (Asteraceae)

The essential oil, obtained by Clevenger distillation, and water-soluble and water-insoluble parts of the methanol extracts of Achillea sintenisii Hub. Mor. were individually assayed for their antimicrobial activities against 12 bacteria and two yeasts, Candida albicans and C. krusei. No activity was exhibited by the water-soluble subfraction, whereas both the water-insoluble subfraction of the methanol extracts and the essential oil were found to be active against some test microorganisms studied. Since the essential oil possessed stronger activity than the other extracts tested, it was further fractionated and the fractions were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity, followed by GC-MS analysis, resulting in the identification of 32 compounds which constituted 90.2% of the total oil. The GC-MS analysis of the oil and its fractions revealed that the main components of the oil, e.g. camphor and eucalyptol, possessed appreciable activity against C. albicans and Clostridium perfringens. The fi ndings presented here also suggest that the other constituents of the oil, e.g. borneol and piperitone can also be taken into account for the activity observed.

Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil and methanol extracts of Achillea millefolium subsp. millefolium Afan. (Asteraceae)

The in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the essential oil and methanol extracts of Achillea millefolium subsp. millefolium Afan. (Asteraceae) were investigated. GC-MS analysis of the essential oil resulted in the identification of 36 compounds constituting 90.8% of the total oil. Eucalyptol, camphor, alpha-terpineol, beta-pinene, and borneol were the principal components comprising 60.7% of the oil. The oil strongly reduced the diphenylpicrylhydrazyl radical (IC(50)=1.56 micro g/ml) and exhibited hydroxyl radical scavenging effect in the Fe(3+)-EDTA-H(2)O(2) deoxyribose system (IC(50)=2.7 micro g/ml). It also inhibited the nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation of rat liver homogenate (IC(50)=13.5 micro g/ml). The polar phase of the extract showed antioxidant activity. The oil showed antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Clostridium perfringens, Candida albicans, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Acinetobacter lwoffii and Candida krusei while water-insoluble parts of the methanolic extracts exhibited slight or no activity. This study confirms that the essential oil of Achillea millefolium possesses antioxidant and antimicrobial properties in vitro.

Compositions and the in vitro antimicrobial activities of the essential oils of Achillea setacea and Achillea teretifolia (Compositae)

GC-MS analysis of the isolated essential oils from air-dried aerial parts of Achillea setacea and Achillea teretifolia, an endemic taxon, resulted in the identification of 51 constituents (79.8% of the total oil) and 42 constituents (87.1% of the total oil), respectively. Eucalyptol (1,8-cineole) was the major constituent of both oils studied (18.5 and 19.9%, respectively). The antimicrobial activities of the essential oils were individually evaluated against 14 microorganisms. Both oils exhibited inhibitory effects on Clostridium perfringens, Acinetobacter lwoffii and Candida albicans with a range of minimum inhibitory concentration values extended from 0.28 to 2.25 mg/ml. Camphor and their derivatives, borneol, terpinen-4-ol and eucalyptol (1,8-cineol) can be considered as the main antimicrobial constituents of the oils studied.