Essential Oil Extraction of Piper betle, Piper ramipilum, and Piper aduncum and their Antibacterial Activity against Food borne Pathogens.

Traditional uses of piper plants to cure diseases are associated with their constituents. In this research, we extracted the essential oils from Piper betle, Piper ramipilum, and Piper aduncum by steam distillation yielding extracts of 1.44%, 1.11%, and 1.93% (v/w), respectively. GC-MS analysis showed low-oxygenated terpenes in these Piper species. The identified components of P. betle, P. ramipilum, and P. aduncum consisted of 46, 42, and 43 compounds, respectively. P. betle had β-phellandrene (8.67%), 4-terpineol (7.05%), trans-β-caryophyllene (5.44%), α-humulene (6.30%), and caryophyllene oxide (5.53%) as its main constituents. The compounds of β-phellandrene, trans-β-caryophyllene, and caryophyllene oxide were also identified as predominant constituents in P. ramipilum along with α-pinene, linalool, and β-selinene compounds with percentages of 7.79, 14.76, 5.36, 6.02, 9.41, and 6.68%, respectively. In addition, P. aduncum was dominated by apiole (33.49%) and trans-β-caryophyllene (6.67%). Antibacterial activity against foodborne pathogens was evaluated by a disk diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The diluted essential oils of P. betle showed the highest sensitivity to E. coli with the inhibition zone and activity percentage of 15.38±0.22 mm and 47.11±1.03%, respectively. Meanwhile, the highest antibacterial activity against S. aureus was obtained from P. ramipilum with an inhibition zone of 11.25 ± 0.22 mm and an activity percentage of 31.48±0.93%. Generally, these Piper species had higher activity against E. coli than S. aureus. Our results demonstrate that P. betle and P. ramipilum have good potential to be developed as complementary or alternative treatments for foodborne diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]