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. 2021 Sep 3;10(9):1829.
doi: 10.3390/plants10091829.

Chemical Composition and Assessment of Antimicrobial Activity of Lavender Essential Oil and Some By-Products

Alexandru Ciocarlan  1 , Lucian Lupascu  1 , Aculina Aricu  1 , Ion Dragalin  1 , Violeta Popescu  1 , Elisabeta-Irina Geana  2   3 , Roxana Elena Ionete  2 , Nicoleta Vornicu  3 , Octavian G Duliu  4   5 , Gergana Hristozova  5   6 , Inga Zinicovscaia  1   5   7
Affiliations

Chemical Composition and Assessment of Antimicrobial Activity of Lavender Essential Oil and Some By-Products

Alexandru Ciocarlan et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

The producers of essential oils from the Republic of Moldova care about the quality of their products and at the same time, try to capitalize on the waste from processing. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the chemical composition of lavender (Lavanda angustifolia L.) essential oil and some by-products derived from its production (residual water, residual herbs), as well as to assess their "in vitro" antimicrobial activity. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of essential oils produced by seven industrial manufacturers led to the identification of 41 constituents that meant 96.80-99.79% of the total. The main constituents are monoterpenes (84.08-92.55%), followed by sesquiterpenes (3.30-13.45%), and some aliphatic compounds (1.42-3.90%). The high-performance liquid chromatography analysis allowed the quantification of known triterpenes, ursolic, and oleanolic acids, in freshly dried lavender plants and in the residual by-products after hydrodistillation of the essential oil. The lavender essential oil showed good antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Xanthomonas campestris, Erwinia carotovora at 300 μg/mL concentration, and Erwinia amylovora, Candida utilis at 150 μg/mL concentration, respectively. Lavender plant material but also the residual water and ethanolic extracts from the solid waste residue showed high antimicrobial activity against Aspergillus niger, Alternaria alternata, Penicillium chrysogenum, Bacillus sp., and Pseudomonas aeroginosa strains, at 0.75-6.0 μg/mL, 0.08-0.125 μg/mL, and 0.05-4.0 μg/mL, respectively.

Keywords: Lavandula angustifolia L.; antimicrobial activity; by-products; chromatographic analyses; essential oil; statistical data analysis; terpenic compounds.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Box plots representing the distribution of (a) 25 components of lavender oil and (b) total content of compounds present in all the samples (producers).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The results of R (a) and Q (b) mode PCA. The insets illustrate the contribution of the corresponding principal component (PC) analysis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The screen plots corresponding to R-mode (a) and Q-mode (b) PCA.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Flowchart of the UA and OA extract preparation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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