Chemical Composition and Biological Activity of Essential Oils of Sempervivum brevipilum Muirhead

The essential oils of the fresh flower, leaf, and stem of Sempervivum brevipilum Muirhead. (Crassulaceae) were isolated by hydrodistillation in a modified Clevenger-type apparatus, and characterized by GC-FID and GC-MS. A total of fifty, fourty-three, and thirty-one compounds were identified, constituting over 92.6%, 92.6%, and 94.3% of oil composition of the flower, leaf, and stem of S. brevipilum, respectively. The chemical profile reveals the dominance of hydrocarbons (flower: 65.3%, leaf: 47.6%, stem: 71.1%). The major compounds of essential oils from S. brevipilum were tetracosane (20.2%) in flower, 1,2-diphenyl ethandione (16.1%) in leaf and docosane (30.5%) in stem. Monoterpene hydrocarbons were the major class of terpenoids in flower (2.2%) and in stem (1.8%), oxygenated diterpene was the major class of terpenoids in leaf (4.5%). Oxygenated monoterpenes were in minor amounts in all parts (flower: 0.3%, leaf: 0.7%, stem: 0.1%) of the plant. In addition, antimicrobial activities of the essential oils of S. brevipilum were investigated. The oils didn’t show any antibacterial and antifungal activity against tested bacteria, but showed high antituberculostatic activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis.