Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Properties of Schinus molle L. Essential Oil from Turkey

In traditional medicine, Schinus molle was used in treating a variety of wounds and infections due to its antibacterial and antiseptic properties. Based on this, the chemical constituents, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Schinus molle fruit essential oils were investigated. The hydro-distillation was used for the essential oil extraction of Schinus molle fruits and the chemical composition of extracted essential oils were identified by GC-MS. Antibacterial activities were evaluated by the agar disc diffusion method. Antioxidant properties were determined according to the TEAC method. The major components were identified as ?-phellandrene (31.74%), limonene (16.82%), ß-phellandrene (16.49%) and p-cymene (11.36%), respectively. The results showed that essential oils of the fruits had weak biological effects against five of eight tested bacterial and yeast species. The essential oil extract prepared from S. molle fruits had weak antioxidant activity with 4.7±1.2 mM Trolox values which monitored slightly good radical scavenging activities. © 2017, Har Krishan Bhalla & Sons