CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF ALGERIAN AMMI VISNAGA ESSENTIAL OIL

Abstract

The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial part of Ammi visnaga L., harvested in the northwest of Algeria was analyzed and its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities were studied. 26 compounds were identified by GC-FID and GC-MS representing 95.1% of the total oil. The major components found were limonene (27.8%), p-cymene (19.9%), carvacrol (18.7%), thymol (14.2%) and gamma-terpinene (10%). The EO was slightly toxic with an LD50 of 500 mg/kg. The antimicrobial activity showed that all strains tasted were sensitive to the EO, with diameter halos ranging from 17.73 to 36.1 mm in the disc diffusion method, the results of MIC and MBC-MFC showed that the activity was microbicidal against all the tasted strains. Concerning the anti-inflammatory activity, Ammi visnaga EO reduced the carrageenan induced paw edema in rats by 56.35% after 6 hours.