CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND BIOACTIVE POTENTIAL OF ESSENTIAL OIL ISOLATED FROM RHANTERIUM SUAVEOLENS DESF. SPECIES GROWING IN TUNISIAN ARID ZONE

The purpose of this work is to assess the antioxidant and the antibacterial activities of essential oil from flowers of Rhanterium suaveolens Desf. and to investigate its chemical composition. The GC-MS analysis revealed the identification of a total of thirty-one compounds representing 98.4% of the total oil. Spathulenol (18.3%), carvacrol (12.1%), linalool (9.4%), [alpha]-terpineol (7.10%), [alpha]-terpinolene (6.3%) and pinocarvone (5.6%) were identified as major constituents. The tested oil exhibited weak activities in both DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays and ferric reducing power test. However, it showed a good lipid peroxidation activity using the [beta]-carotene/linoleic acid assay with an [IC.sup.50] value of 26.20 [+ or -] 1.01 [micro]g/mL. In addition, the highest antibacterial effect was recorded against Staphylococcus aureus ((MIC=37.5 [micro]g/mL). These findings show that essential oil of R. suaveolens flowers can be used as a promising source of natural food and drug preservatives. Keywords: antioxidant, antibacterial, essential oil, Rhanterium suaveolens, chemical composition