Chemical constituents and antibacterial activity of essential oil of Satureja bachtiarica (Lamiaceae).

The genus Satureja L. (Lamiaceae) consists of more than 200 species of herbaceous perennials worldwide. The Mediterranean region can be described as the center of the genus (1). This genius in flora of Iran is represented by fourteen species distributed commonly in rocky mountains (2, 3). Nine Satureja species has been reported in ìFlora Iranicaî (4), two of which, S. kallarica Jamzad and S. bachtiarica Bunge are distributed in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province, Southwest Iran (4). The areal parts and volatile constituents of savory are used as a medicinal herb. Satureja species are commonly used for herbal tea, flavoring agents (condiment and spice) and medicinal purposes (5). Infusion and decoction of aerial parts of Satureja species are used to produce a tonic, carminative, digestive and expectorant and for the treatment of colds in Iranian traditional medicine (5, 6). The essential oils composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of some Satureja species have been studied (7-17). The previous study showed that essential oil and extract of S. bachtiarica exhibited antimicrobial activities against E. coli O157:H7, Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes (18), Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus sp. and Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19), Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio harveyi isolated from infected fishes (20), Candida albicans (21) and Streptococcus iniae (22). Previous results (23) showed that the essential oil of S. bachtiarica affected on immune system and growth of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The essential oil of S. bachtiarica strong aromatic odor is due to the presence of volatile oils especially carvacrol, γ-terpinene and thymol (19). To our knowledge, there are no published reports on the chemical composition, and antibacterial activity of the essential oil of S. bachtiarica against Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated meat here described. For this reason, the chemical composition of this oil was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy.