Essential oil of two plant species from Peniche coast (Crithmum maritimum l. and Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata (Guss.) parl.): Assessment of antimicrobial and antioxidant activities
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1
ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal
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2
CNC.IBILI, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Health Sciences Campus, Portugal
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3
MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal
The organisms that make up the terrestrial and marine interface provide a wide range of resources and functional compounds, which work as a source for substances with antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal and even antitumor activity. Coastal sand dunes are subjected to severe environmental stresses and disturbance, caused by salinity, drought, nutrient limitation, substrate instability, sand burial, wind abrasion, erosion of the coastline and storms. Sand-dune plant species, due to their understudied and unexplored stress adaptation mechanisms and strategies present an opportunity for the discovery of new bioactive molecules. Plants have the ability to produce compounds characteristic of a taxonomic group (i.e. family, genus and species) through metabolic pathways originating the secondary metabolites. The biosynthesis of these metabolites is restricted to specific stages of the development and specialized cells of the plant, and can be induced by the stress caused by nutrient deficiency or by the attack by organisms. Secondary metabolites are involved in functions such as providing characteristic odors, pungencies and colors; plant-plant relations and plant-animal interaction and providing culinary, medicinal or poisonous properties to plants. Although the functions of many secondary metabolites are already well-known, for a great part of these the value to the plant is still unknown. Essential oils are secondary metabolites and they are produced in a wide range of plant species, called aromatic plants. These are complex mixtures, with a specific color, smell and physico-chemical composition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of essential oils obtained from two native plants of the Peniche coast as antibacterial and antioxidant agents. The plants selected and studied for this purpose were Crithmum maritimum and Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata. C. maritimum (Apiaceae) is a facultative halophile found all over the European coast, whose leaves are rich in bioactive substances used as insecticides, flavorings and antimicrobial agents. Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata (Cupressaceae) is a coastal plant spread throughout the Mediterranean whose leaves and galbulus are used in bronco-pulmonary disease treatment. Essential oil extraction was made by hydrodestilation with a Clevenger apparatus and once extracted the oil was evaluated for its antibacterial ability using a disk diffusion method considering commercial antibiotic disks as positive controls and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a negative control. The strains used were: two gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus sp. (ATCC6633) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923); and three gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas sp. (ATCC27853), E. coli (ATCC5922) and Salmonella sp. (ATCC13076)). Antioxidant activity of the oils and a commercial standard (butylated hydroxytoluene – BHT) was evaluated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging method and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances assay (TBARS). Both species present high extraction yield of essential oil, with J. phoenicea var. turbinata slightly higher. The oils showed significant antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, with C. maritimum more active than J. phoenicea var. turbinata, revealing the presence of bioactive compounds in both essential oils, making them potential resources for biotechnological innovation. Further analysis are needed in order to determine the exact composition of both essential oils and compare the results obtained with the essential oils obtained from the same species grown in other environments.
Acknowledgements
This study had the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through the strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013 granted to MARE.
Keywords:
coastal plants,
essential oils,
Crithmum maritimum,
Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinate,
Hydrodistillation,
antioxidant activity,
Antibacterial activity
Conference:
IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016, Peniche, Portugal, 14 Jul - 15 Jul, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster presentation
Topic:
Blue Biotechnology
Citation:
Santos
G,
Ferreira
C,
Cabral
C,
Mouga
TM and
Afonso
CN
(2016). Essential oil of two plant species from Peniche coast (Crithmum maritimum l. and Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata (Guss.) parl.): Assessment of antimicrobial and antioxidant activities.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.04.00060
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Received:
28 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
13 Jul 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Clélia N Afonso, MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Peniche, 2520-641, Portugal, clelia@ipleiria.pt