ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION AND ANTICANDIDAL ACTIVITY OF TEUCRIUM POLIUM L.

Teucrium polium L. is one of the 300 species of the genus Teucrium from Lamiaceae family most of which are found in the dry and stony places of the hills and deserts of Mediterranean countries, South Western Asia, Europe and North Africa. Aerial parts of T. polium collected from Beycik, Antalya were subjected to water-distillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus. The resulting essential oil was analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS, simultaneously. Overall, fourty seven components were characterized, where T-cadinol (21 %), a-cadinol (8.8 %), alpha-pinene (8.7 %) and germacrene-B (8.7 %) were identified as major constituents. The essential oil was also screened against Candida standard strains, where the minimal inhibitory concentrations were determined using a microdilution method. All tested pathogens inhibited by the oil between the concentrations of 0,06 to 0,25 mg/mL (MX). The aim of the present work was to get a better knowledge of the volatiles compounds and anticandidal activity of T. polium.