Volatile constituents and biological properties of essential oils from aerial parts of Gentiana gelida BIEB

This work reports the chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oils from the aerial parts of Gentiana gelida BIEB. for the first time in literature. The oils from the aerial parts (flower, leaf and stem) were obtained by Clevenger-type apparatus and characterized by GC-FID and GC-MS. While tricosane (21.67%) was the main component of flower oil, hexadecanoic acid was the most abundant component of leaf and stem oils in ratios 26.46% and 31.89%, respectively. Additionally, all essential oils of G. gelida were investigated for their antimicrobial activity against eight Gram negative bacteria, four Gram positive bacteria and five fungi, using agar dilution method and antioxidant activities by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging and Folin-Ciocalteu assays. The flower oil of G. gelida showed stronger antimicrobial and antioxidant activities than those of stem and leaf. The amount of total phenolic content and scavenging activity of the flower oil were found 525.35±8.24 mg GAE/L and 49.30±1.25%, respectively.