Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of <i>Pelargonium roseum</i> essential oil from Southwest of Iran

Abstract

In this work the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of <em>Pelargonium roseum</em> leaves essential oil that grown in southwest of Iran were determined. The hydrodistilled volatile components were identified by GC/MS analysis. A total of 33 components have been identified in the oil, representing 99.38% of the total oil and citronellol (44.63%), citronellyl formate (14.22%), isomenthon (6.34%), geraniol (5.30%) and caryophyllene (3.55%) were the main components, respectively. Antimicrobial property of essential oil was investigated by disc diffusion method against three Gram positive (<em>Staphylococcus aureus</em>, <em>Bacillus ceruse</em>, <em>Streptococcus faecium</em>) and four Gram negative (<em>Escherichia coli</em>, <em>Salmonella typhi</em>, <em>Shigella dysenteria</em>, <em>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</em>) bacteria and a yeast (<em>Sacharomyces cervisiae</em>) in comparable with the standard antibiotics. The essential oil of <em>P. roseum</em> showed inhibitory activity against all the bacteria and yeast tested to varying degree. <em>B. cereus</em> and <em>S. faecium</em> were found as the most sensitive and resistant bacteria, respectively. According to these results, it can be concluded that the essential oil of <em>P. roseum</em> has suitable spectrum antimicrobial activity and can be used as natural preservatives in food industry.