Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Colchicum speciosum Steven growing in Türkiye

In the current study, the chemical constituents, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the volatile oil obtained from flowers and stems of C. speciosum growing in Türkiye were investigated. Both volatile oils were extracted through the hydrodistillation method in a Clevenger apparatus followed by the GC-MS analysis. The volatile oil yield attained from flowers and stems parts were determined as 0.62% and 0.65%, respectively. The most abundant compounds were determined in the flowers. Tricosane, octadecanal and hexadecanoic acid were identified to be the major components. Tricosane (38.28%) was defined to be the major component in flowers. 2-hydroxy benzaldehyde, tricosane and hexadecanoic acid were found to be the main compounds in the volatile oil of stems. 2-hydroxy benzaldehyde (46.49%) was found to be the main constituents in stems. According to the results antioxidant activity was attained as total antioxidant substance amount (86.77 mg AA/100 mL), total phenolic substance amount (65.64 mg GA/100 mL), total flavonoid substance amount (3.92 mg QE/100 mL), ferric (III) ion reducing antioxidant power capacity (6.88 mg FeSO4/100 mL) and free radical scavenging capacity (ABTS) (50.67 mg AA/100 mL) were obtained the highest antioxidant properties were obtained in flowers of C. speciosum. C. speciosum volatile oils had antimicrobial activity against Bacillus cereus in the flowers and had no activity against bacteria and yeast-mould in the stems.