chemical composition and antimicrobial activities of essential oils of some coniferous plants cultivated in egypt

family cupressaceae is the largest coniferous plant family. essential oils of many species belonging to family cupressaceae are known to have several biological activities specially antimicrobial activity. the essential oils from aerial parts of calocedrus decurrens torr., cupressus sempervirens stricta l. and tetraclinis articulata (vahl) mast. were prepared by hydrodistillation. the chemical composition of the essential oils has been elucidated by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy analysis. the prepared essential oils were examined against selected species of gram-positive, gram-negative bacteria and candida species. broth dilution method was used to detect minimum inhibitory concentration (mic), minimum bactericidal concentration (mbc) and minimum fungicidal concentration (mfc). sixteen compounds were identified in the essential oils of both calocedrus decurrens and cupressus sempervirens l. and fifteen compounds were identified in the essential oil of tetraclinis articulata. δ-3-carene (43.10%), (+)-cedrol (74.03%) and camphor (21.23%) were the major constituents in the essential oils of calocedrus decurrens, cupressus sempervirens l. and tetraclinis articulata, respectively. the essential oils showed strong antimicrobial activities against the selected microorganisms in concentration range 0.02 3- 3.03 µl/ml. this study could contribute to the chemotaxonomic characterization of family cupressaceae. in addition to, it proved that the essential oils under investigation possess potential antimicrobial properties.