European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITIES OF ESSENTIAL OILS ISOLATED FROM TWO SPECIES CUPRESSUS ARIZONICA GREENE AND CUPRESSUS SEMPERVIRENS L. (VAR. HORIZONTALIS AND PYRAMIDALIS)

Layla Al-Mouhajer, Roula Chabo, Antoine M. Saab, Katia Saade and Hassane Makhlouf*

ABSTRACT

Cupressus sempervirens L. and Cupressus arizonica Greene are two cone-bearing coniferous woody plant species of the Cupressaceae family found in Lebanon. The essential oils of the introduced species Cupressus arizonica Greene and those of each of the two native varieties of the species C. sempervirens L. (var. pyramidalis and horizontalis), both collected in Lebanon, were isolated from their cones by hydrodistillation. By using the agar disc diffusion method, we aim at studying the antibacterial activity of each of these oils against two bacterial strains, namely the Gram-positive Staphylococcus epidermidis and the Gram-negative Escherichia coli. A significant antibacterial activity was obtained by all plant extracts tested. However, this study revealed that both varieties of the species C. sempervirens exhibited an inhibitory activity slightly greater than that of the C. arizonica against the Gram-positive bacteria, whereas C. arizonica showed a slightly greater inhibitory activity against the Gram-negative bacteria used in this study.

Keywords: Cupressus sempervirens, Cupressus arizonica, Antibacterial activity, Essential oils, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli.