Chemical screening, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Ruta angustifolia essential oil from Morocco

Ruta angustifolia, a wild plant which largely grows in Morocco, is commonly used in folk medicine and is believed to possess several therapeutic properties. In the present work, we aimed to determine the chemical composition, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties of the essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of Ruta angustifolia collected from the Rif region in Morocco. The employment of gas chromatography coupled to flame ionization detector and mass spectrometry detection led to the identification of five major components, representing 91.69 % of the total volatile fraction with a dominance of nonyl methyl ketone (accounting for % 86.97 % of the whole sample). The tested essential oil displayed moderate antioxidant activity and a strong antifungal effect against Fusarium oxysporum and Botrytis cinerea with MIC values equal to 7 mu L/mL and 0.81 mu L/mL respectively. However, no antibacterial effect was revealed against Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacterial strains.