Chemical constituents, antimicrobial investigations, and antioxidative potentials of Anethum graveolens L. essential oil and acetone extract:: Part 52

The antioxidant, antifungal, and antibacterial potentials of essential oil and acetone extract of Anethum graveolens L. were investigated in the present study. The extract has shown excellent activity for the inhibition of primary and secondary oxidation products for rapeseed oil in comparision with butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), which were evaluated using peroxide, thiobarbituric acid, p-anisidine, and carbonyl values. The activity of extract was further confirmed using other antioxidant properties such as ferric thiocyanate method in linoleic acid system, which reducing power and scavenging effect (%) on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical. Using inverted Petri plate method, the volatile oil completely inhibited the growth of Fusarium graminearum at 6 mu L dose. Moreover, using poison food technique, the essential oil was found to be highly effective for controlling the growth of Penicillium citrinum and Aspergillus niger. In antibacterial investigations, using agar well diffusion method, the extract has shown better activity for Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus in comparison with commercial bactericide. However, essential oil has shown better activity for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Gas chromatographic-mass spectroscopy studies on essential oil resulted in the identification of 35 components, which account for the 98.9% of the total amount. The major component was carvone (55.2%) followed by limonene (16.6%), dill apiole (14.4%), and linalool (3.7%). The analysis of acetone extract showed the presence of 25 components, which account for 94.5% of the total amount. The major components were dill apiole (43.2%), linoleic acid (23.1%), trans-anethole (11.0%), 2-propanone, 1-(4-methoxyphenyl) (4.6%), carvone (3.1%), p-anisaldehyde (2.7%), and myristicin (1.5%). In conclusion, the results presented here show that dill essential oil could be considered as a source for natural antimicrobial, whereas its extract could be considered as an alternative source of natural antioxidant.