Investigation of Oils from Some Sudanese Medicinal Herbs

Abstract

Acknowledgements Thank to Almighty Allah for giving me health to complete this work successfully. I am greatly indebted to Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Karim, for his keen interest, supervision, encouragement, support, and guidance throughout this study. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Faroug Bakheit Elsonni,for his support and encouragement. I am grateful to Dr. Hassan Alamein, for his kind help.Imust not forget to thank Dr. Atif Babker for his great help. Thanks to my family for their continual support. Also my thanks extend to laboratory staff of the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Institute, and to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry- Sudan for all facilities.iv Abstract The essential oils from Cymbopogon citratus, Brassica nigra and Cymbopogon nervatus were analyzed by GC-MS. In addition, these oils were investigated for antimicrobial activity. GC-MS revealed that the dominant constituents in Cymbopogon citrates oil are; 2,6-octadienal, 3,7-dimethyl (E) (43.20%), 2,6-octadienal,3,7-dimethyl (Z) (31.36%) and 5, hepten-2-one, 6-methyl (3.87%). The major constituents in the oil of Brassica nigra were; 13-docosenoic acid, methyl ester (35.65%), 9,12-octadecadienoic acid (Z,Z) , methyl ester (18.20%), 11-eicosenoic acid, methyl ester (12.82%), 9-Z-octadecenoic acid, methyl ester (8.90%), 9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid, methyl ester (8.60%), hexadecanoic acid methyl ester (3.83%), 15-tetracosenoic acid, methyl ester (3.77) and Cis-11-eicosenoic acid, methyl ester (2%). Most dominant constituents in the oil of Cymbopogon nervatus are;P-mentha-1(7),8-dien- 2-ol (24.27%), trans-p-mentha-1(7),8-dien-2-ol (21.07%), trans-p-mentha- 2,8-dienol (13.28%), carveol (10.43%), cis-p-mentha-2,8-dien-1-ol (9.43%), ]1,1-bicyclopentyl[-2-one (5.65%), (-)-carvone (5.27%) and Dlimonene (2.41%). In the disc diffusion bioassay, Cymbopogon citrates oil showed excellent antibacterial activity against all test bacteria at 100 mg/ml but did it not exhibit any anticandidal activity. It also showed excellent activity against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa at 50 and 25mg/ml. Significant antimicrobial activity was observed for Cymbopogon nervatus oil at 100 mg /ml for all test organisms. Brassica nigra oil showed excellent antimicrobial activity at 100 mg/ml against all test organisms except for S.v aureus. It also exhibited significant activity against B. subtilis and E. coli at 50 and 25 mg/ml.vi