Chemical Composition of Carvacrol Rich Leaf Essential Oil of Thymus vulgarisfrom India: Assessment of Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Potential

AbstractThe essential oil of Thymus vulgarisis extensively used in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and fragrance industries. The present work was carried out to analyse the chemical constituents of T. vulgarisleaf essential oil of Western Himalayan (India) origin and study its antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic potential. The analysis of the essential oil through GC-MS led to the identification of a total of 27 compounds representing 99.11 % of the total oil showing carvacrol (45.53 %) as the predominant constituent followed by o-cymene (11.29 %), linalool (9.60 %), diethyl phthalate (8.48 %) and thymol (6.12 %). The antioxidant study of the essential oil through DPPH and FRAP assay exhibited IC50value and EC50value as 1.71±0.02 and 1.032 ± 0.01 μg/ml respectively. Essential oil revealed strong antibacterial activity against nine food spoiling pathogenic bacteria with MIC values ranging from 0.02 to 1.56 μg/ml. Cytotoxic study of essential oil revealed moderate cytotoxic activity as evaluated by MTT assay with IC50value of 135.46 and 98.59 μg/mL respectively for HepG-2 and PC-3 cancerous cell lines. The present paper with confirmatory evidence of significant bioactivity of carvacrol-rich leaf essential oil of T. vulgarisfrom India ascertained its therapeutic value for health benefits.