In vitro antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antiviral activities of the essential oil and various extracts from Thymus nummularis M. Bieb.

WOS: 000379195200007This study is designed to determine the in vitro antioxidant, antimicrobial and antiviral activities of hexane, chloroform, water extracts and essential oils of Thymus nummularis M. Bieb. Chemical composition of essential oil was determined by employing GC-MS and GC-FID analyses; thymol being the main component in 58 %. The oil and extracts were screened for their possible antioxidant activities by two complementary test systems, namely DPPH free radical scavenging and Carotene color bleaching test a spectrophotometric method. The highest free radical scavenging activity was observed in the essential oil (IC50: 2.3 mu g/ml) whilst, in beta-Carotene color bleaching test, chloroform extract showed superiority, with an inhibition rate at 79.95 %. Antibacterial and antifungal activities of the extracts were also evaluated and among which the essential oil exerted better activity against all microorganisms tested except for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Nevertheless, none was effective against test viruses, namely HSV and Influenza