Antimicrobial activity and analyses of six Geranium L. species with headspace SPME and hydrodistillation

Abstract

A solid phase microextraction (SPME) method with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used for analyses of the volatile compounds of six Geranium species; G. asphodeloides, G. psilostemon, G. purpureum, G. pyrenaicum, G. robertianum and G. sanguineum. the results were compared with those obtained by hydrodistillation. According to the results of the study, the major compounds identified in the SPME extracts were sabinen (33.5 %) (G. asphodeloides), caryophyllene (34.1 %, 21.7 %, 11.2 %) (G. psilostemon, G. purpureum and G. robertianum), germacrene D (25.2 %) (G. pyrenaicum), and alloaromadendrene (19.8 %) (G. sanguineum) whereas hydrodistillation (HD) essential oils were rich in benzene acetaldehyde (30 %, 25.7 %) (G. asphodeloides, G. sanguineum), caryophyllene (34.3 %, 11.3 %) (G. psilostemon and G. robertianum), hexadecanoic acid (36.2 %, 15.1 %) (G. purpureum and G. pyrenaicum). the oils were screened for antimicrobial activity against 10 microorganisms and showed antibacterial and antifungal activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.