Abstract
The present research work investigated antioxidant, antibacterial, and antifungal properties of essential oils from the leaves of
var. apodysa Briq. (EOR). Hydro-distillation was used to extract EOR before being subjected to the chemical characterization by the use of GC/MS. Antioxidant activity was assessed by the use of three bioassays namely 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Antimicrobial potency was tested against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria namely
,
and
, while antifungal activity was tested against
and
. EOR yield was determined to be 1.31%, with 20 compounds wherein Menthol (31.28%) and Isomenthol (14.28%) constituted the greatest amount. Regarding antioxidant activity, EOR exhibited potent antioxidant power: DPPH (IC
value of 0.36 ± 0.03 mg/mL), FRAP (EC
value of 0.35 ± 0.03 mg/mL), and TAC (697.45 ± 1.07 mg EAA/g). Antibacterial activity results showed that EOR had broad antibacterial activity on the tested strains. Eventually, EOR resulted in the greatest inhibition zone diameters vs
(18.20 ± 0.41 mm) followed by
(17.02 ± 0.5 mm). Antifungal activity results showed that EOR exhibited potent antifungal activity and resulted in the greatest inhibition zone diameters up to 51.32 ± 1.32 mm against
, and 34.51 ± 1.07 mm against