Physicochemical Properties and Antibacterial Activity of Essential Oil of Litsea cubeba Pers. Fruit

Le Pham Tan Quoc

Abstract

The physicochemical properties of the essential oil (EO) extracted from the fruit of Litsea cubeba Pers. were determined, such as pH (5.33±0.15), acid value (8.92±1.02 mg KOH/g EO), saponification value (20.99±2.83 mg KOH/g EO), relative density (0.8836±0.0031), absolute density (0.8820±0.0023 g/mL), and freezing point (-12.67±0.58ºC). The antioxidant capacity was quite low: IC50 was not found in this study. In addition, some chemical components were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method with some major compounds such as 4-methyl-1,5-heptadiene (26.02%), 1-methoxy-2-butyne (20.05%), and
cyclobutane, 1,3-diisopropenyl-, trans (18.06%). The EO was tested for its antibacterial activities against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus – ATCC 25923, Bacillus subtilis – ATCC 11774), and gram-negative (Escherichia coli – ATCC 25922), Salmonella Enteritidis – ATCC 13076) bacteria. The results showed the highest activity against B. subtilis and the lowest activity against both S. Enteritidis and S. aureus