Comparison of Chemical Composition, Antifungal and Antibacterial Activities of Two Populations of Salvia macilenta Boiss. Essential Oil

Salvia macilenta Boiss. is a fragrant subshrub which grows wild in some regions of Iran. In this work, we contrasted essential oil contents and components of two wild populations under two different ecological situations (Kerman and Baluchistan Provinces, Center and South East of Iran, respectively). For the first time the antibacterial and the antimycotic properties of these essential oils were also evaluated against seven bacterial and fungal strains. The essential oils were isolated by hydrodistillation method and the chemical compositions of the samples were examined by GC and GC-MS. Kerman (K) specimen was found to be rich in α -pinene (29.0%), p-cymene (10.7%), veridiflorol (9.1%), α-eudesmol (8.7%), bornyl acetate (7.3%) with lesser concentrations of borneol (4.9%) . Principal components were identified as α -eudesmol (35.6%), α-pinene (7.7%), bornyl acetate (7.6%), ( E )-nerolidol (6.5%) and veridiflorol (5.9%) from Baluchistan (B) sample. Oxygenated sesquiterpenes were found to be the principal class of components in the oil of Baluchistan sample (53.0%) whereas monoterpene hydrocarbons were the main class in Kerman specimen (46.6%). The results demonstrated that the variety in the volatile compounds could be considered as chemotaxonomic importance and it may be ascribed to their different ecological and geographical source.