Composition and biological activity of essential oil of Achillea ligustica All. (Asteraceae) naturalized in central Italy: Ideal candidate for anti-cariogenic formulations

Essential oil from flowers (FL) and vegetative parts (VP) of Achillea ligustica (Asteraceae), naturalized after cultivation in central Italy, was investigated by GC-FID and GC-MS The most. abundant components were linalool viridiflorol beta-pinene 1,8-cineole and terpinen-4-ol The antioxidant assays (DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays, and beta-carotene bleaching test) demonstrated a moderate activity of essential oils. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated by the broth micro-dilution method on 6 microbial strains and showed to be quite strong against the cariogenic Gram-positive Streptococcus mutans, suggesting that this essential oil could be a valid candidate for anti-cariogenic formulations. Moderate cytotoxic activity was observed in assays on four tumour cell lines by MTT assay. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.