Chemical Investigation and Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oil from Carum roxburghianum

The essential oil was obtained from crushed seeds, extracted through Hydrodistillation method. The percentage yield of Carum roxburghianum was found 4.7% respectively. Physical properties i.e., colour, odour, specific gravity, solubility, refractive index, acid value and ester value were recorded according to the standard procedures. Chemical composition of essential oil of Carum roxburghianum was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Compounds found in Carum roxburghianum were α-pinene (0.42%), β-pinene (0.15%), myrcene (0.22%), Δ-carene (3.27%), limonene (16.43%), α-terpinene (1.44%), thymol (3.61%), linalool (1.07%), carvacrol (14.68%), carvone (2.29%), 1-cadinene (0.14%), β-elemene (0.99%), α-humulene (1.27%), elemol (38.56%) and cadinol (14.42%). The percentage of unidentified components was (0.93%). The antimicrobial activity of essential oil of Carum roxburghianum were also carried out and the oil showed antimicrobial activity against two gram positive, two gram negative bacteria and four fungi.