Composition, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Methanol Extracts of Some Acinos Miller Species

GC and GC/MS analyses of the methanol extracts obtained from the aerial parts of six Acinos Miller species from Serbia and Montenegro were performed. Seventy-four constituents, accounting for 84.9-99.0% of the total composition of the extracts, were identified. The common feature of the A. suaveolens, A. majoranifolius and A. alpinus methanol extracts was the high content of monoterpenes, while the common feature of the A. graveolens, A. arvensis and A. hungaricus methanol extracts was the prevalence of sesquiterpenes. The total flavonoids, polyphenols and tannins content, as well as antioxidant activity (FRAP and DPPH assay) of the methanolic extracts were investigated. The highest antioxidant activity was observed in the extract of A. alpinus which had high levels of all polyphenol classes examined. A disk diffusion method was used for the evaluation of the antimicrobial activities of the extracts against a panel of microorganisms (bacteria: Bacillus subtilis, Clostridium pyogenes, Enterococcus sp., Micrococcus flavus, Sarcina lutea, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis and Escherichia coli; fungi: Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae). The preliminary bioassay results indicated that the methanol extract of A. alpinus could be a possible source of antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds.