Antimicrobial Activities and Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil of Origanum majorana L. Growing in Libya

The antimicrobial activity and chemical composition of Libyan Origanum majorana L. essential oil were investigated. The findings showed an important antimicrobial activity against bacterial strains. In fact, the inhibition zone, MIC and MLC values recorded for the bacterial strains were in the range of 13±1.4 to 22±1.4 mm, 65.1 to 15.. and 65.1 to 6.5.0 mg/mL, respectively. GC/MS analysis showed that essential oil is rich in trans-sabinene hydrate (27.1%), terpinen-4-ol (26.9%) followed by cis-sabinene hydrate (6.3%) and carvacrol (3.6%). Results showed an antibacterial effectiveness of O. majorana essential oil and supported the possibility of their use as a source of alternative antimicrobial agent. Faozia A. Ibrahim 1 , Ateea Ali Bellail* 1 , Abubaker M. Hamad 1 and Samira Mecherara-Idjeri 2 1 Food Science Department, College of Agriculture, Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Albeida, Libya 2 USTHB, Faculté de Chimie, BP-32, Elalia Bab-ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria Submission: 27 January 2017 Accepted: 1 February 2017 Published: 25 February 2017 www.ijppr.humanjournals.com Citation: Faozia A. Ibrahim et al. Ijppr.Human, 2017; Vol. 8 (3): 1-11. 2