Chemical Composition, Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activities of the Essential Oil Isolated from Verbena officinalis

The essential oil of Verbena officinalis growing in Iran was extracted using hydro-distillation method and the antibacterial and antioxidant activities were evaluated. The antibacterial activity of the essential oil against a Gram-positive (S. aureus ATCC25923) and Gram negative (E. coli ATCC 25922) were examined. The results obtained revealed that the essential oil exhibited variable levels of antibacterial activities against tested bacterial strains and highest sensitivity to essential oil of V. officinalis was observed by E. coli ATCC 25922. The antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity of the obtained oil was tested by means of 1,1diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) assay and β-carotene bleaching test. In the DPPH assay, while the free radical scavenging activity of the HD oil showed inhibitions of 51.4, 55.00 and 66.30% at 0.25, 0.5 and 1.00 mg/ml, respectively, in the βcarotene bleaching assay, the percentage inhibition increased with increasing the concentration of the oil. The results have shown that the essential oil of Verbena officinalis possess antioxidant and antibacterial activities, and therefore it could be used as a natural preservative ingredient in food and/or pharmaceutical industries.