Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of Pelargonium roseum essential oil from Southwest of Iran

In this work the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of Pelargonium roseum leaves essential oil that grown in southwest of Iran were determined. The hydrodistilled volatile components were identified by GC/MS analysis. A total of 33 components have been identified in the oil, representing 99.38% of the total oil and citronellol (44.63%), citronellyl formate (14.22%), isomenthon (6.34%), geraniol (5.30%) and caryophyllene (3.55%) were the main components, respectively. Antimicrobial property of essential oil was investigated by disc diffusion method against three Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus ceruse, Streptococcus faecium) and four Gram negative (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysenteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria and a yeast (Sacharomyces cervisiae) in comparable with the standard antibiotics. The essential oil of P. roseum showed inhibitory activity against all the bacteria and yeast tested to varying degree. B. cereus and S. faecium were found as the most sensitive and resistant bacteria, respectively. According to these results, it can be concluded that the essential oil of P. roseum has suitable spectrum antimicrobial activity and can be used as natural preservatives in food industry.