Composition and biological activity of the essential oil from Thapsia minor, a new source of geranyl acetate

The essential oils from aerial parts of Thapsia minor Hoffmanns. & Link (Apiaceae), obtained by hydrodistillation, were analyzed by gas-chromatography and gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry. Oxygenated monoterpenes represented the main fraction with geranyl acetate (82.3-83.0%) as the major constituent, making this plant a good source of this compound. Biological activity of the essential oil was evaluated against several fungal strains. The highest activity was found against dermatophyte strains, Crytococcus neoformans and Candida guillermondii with minimal inhibitory concentrations values from 0.32 mu l/ml to 1.25 mu l/ml. The antifungal activity could be associated with the significant contribution of the oxygenated monoterpene geranyl acetate. Furthermore, this essential oil demonstrated to have potent anti-inflammatory in vitro activity, at concentrations that did not affect macrophages and keratinocytes viability, being the anti-inflammatory properties of the oil mainly due to geranyl acetate. These favorable results emphasize the antifungal and anti-inflammatory abilities of the molecule geranyl acetate and further support the exploitation of T. minor oil for pharmaceutical industry, in order to find new phytopharmaceuticals. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.