Phytochemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oils from different parts of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.)

 

Xuan-Feng Yue ^a, Xiao Shang ^a, Zhi-Juan Zhang ^a, Yan-Ni Zhang ^b,*

^a Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science of Shaanxi Province, Shaanxi, China
^b Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Medicinal Resources and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Shaanxi Normal University,
Shaanxi, China

 

Essential oils from the seed, pulp, and leaf of sea buckthorn were obtained with hydrodistillation, and their phytochemical composition was analyzed through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of the oils was tested on five food-borne bacteria by spectrometry and evaluated in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration. The results indicate that the composition of all essential oils is dominated by free fatty acids, esters, and alkanes. Minimum inhibitory concentration values on each bacterium were obtained for oils from different parts. The oils from different parts exhibited nearly equal inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus. The pulp oil was found to be the most effective for the rest of bacteria tested except Escherichia coli, on which seed oil shows twice the inhibitory effect to that of leaf or pulp oil. Three natural inhibitory examples were found comparable with or even better than the positive control: pulp oil on Bacillus subtilis, and pulp oil and leaf oil on Bacillus coagulans.

 

Keywords: antibacterial activity, essential oil, gas chromatographyemass spectrometry, Hippophae rhamnoides L., phytochemical composition