Composition, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Artemisia deserti Kracsh Essential Oil from Iran

Several Artemisia species have medicinal importance and are useful in traditional medicine for the treatment of a variety of diseases and complaints. The hydro-distilled essential oil of Artemisia deserti was investigated by combination of GC-FID and GC/MS methods. Between 43 identified compounds, camphor (20.1 %), trans-thujone (17.8 %) and 1,8-cineole (10.1 %) were the main components. The antimicrobial activity of the oil was evaluated by a disc diffusion method. The oil has shown maximum zone of inhibition against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. As the other results, Staphylococcus aureus was the most sensitive microorganisms to the essential oil (having minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value 0.625 and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) value 1.25 mg/mL). The oil antioxidant activities were measured by DPPH assay and beta-carotene-linoleic acid test. The essential oil significantly reduced the concentration of DPPH free radical (57.2 %), with an efficacy higher than that of Trolox (48.1 %). Also, a 50 % inhibition was noted in formation of peroxidation products in beta-carotene bleaching test.