Metabolomic Profiles of Essential Oils from Selected Rosa Varieties and Their Antimicrobial Activities

This study aimed to analyze the essential oils of the aerial parts (A) and flowers (F) of Rosa banksiae var. banksiae Ait. (RBW), Rosa polyantha Thunb. orange fairy (RPO) and Rosa polyantha Thunb. white fairy (RPW), family Rosaceae, and perform multivariate data analyses and antimicrobial activity evaluations. The essential oil analyses were performed by GC/FID and GC/MS. Principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and clustered heat map were used for the multivariate analyses. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated by the well-diffusion method against four bacteria and four fungi. Two hundred fifty-three compounds were identified from the six oil samples. The major components in RBW-A, RPO-A, and RPW-A were n-undecane (14.40, 19.36, and 9.21%) n-dodecane (14.54, 22.13, and 8.39%), and yomogi alcohol (8.41, 10.53, and 6.28%), respectively, whereas RBW-F, RPO-F and RPW-F contained n-heptadecane (16.70%), n-undecane (7.98%), and beta-phellandrene (22.78%), respectively. The tested essential oils showed moderate antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigatus compared to amphotericin B. PCA and HCA revealed five main clusters. The six samples carried close chemical profiles and can be regarded as fruitful sources of safe antifungal agents.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the essential oils of different types of rose flowers and found that they exhibited potential antifungal activity, showing moderate inhibitory effects against Aspergillus fumigatus. The chemical profiles of the six samples were found to be similar, indicating that they could be valuable sources of safe antifungal agents.