Chemical Composition and In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of the Essential Oil of Phthirusa adunca from Venezuelan Andes

Abstract

In this paper, preliminary studies on the chemical characterization of Phthirusa adunca Meyer essential oil, obtained by hydrodistillation, is presented. The separation of the components was performed by GC-MS. Twenty-three compounds (94.5% of the sample) were identified of which the three major ones (76% of the sample) were β-phellandrene (38.1%), germacrene D (26.8%) and β-pinene (11.5%). The essential oil showed a broad spectrum of activity against Salmonella Typhi CDC 57 (100 μg/mL), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 (200 μg/mL), Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 (250 μg/mL), Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 y Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 23357 (500 μg/mL). This is the first report on the composition and activity of the essential oil of this species.