Chemical Composition and Biological Activity of Lavandula pubescens Essential Oil from Yemen

Abstract

The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled aerial parts of essential oil from Lavandula pubescens Decne. collected from Imran in Yemen was determined by GC-MS analysis, and its cytotoxic, xanthine oxidase inhibitory, antiradical and antimicrobial activities were evaluated. The main compounds were carvacrol (72.7 %), carvacrol methyl ether (7.0 %) and caryophyllene oxide (5.9 %). The oil exhibited strong cytotoxicity against Hela (cervical) and AGS (gastric) cell lines with IC50 less than 10 ?g/mL. It is also had excellent xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitory activity with % inhibition of 26.1 % at 10 ?g/ml and IC50 of 3.8 ?g/mL. The oil demonstrated strong antiradical activity with IC50 value of 75.08 ?g/mL in addition to highest antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, and Escherichia coli with MIC value of 0.078 ?L/mL.