Chemical composition and antifungal activity of vitex agnus-castus l. seeds oil growing in Morocco

The present study describes the chemical composition and the antifungal activity of vitex agnus-castus l. oil extracted from seeds using soxhlet apparatus. the vitex seeds oil contains significant quantity of fixed oil (7.9 ± 0.75 %). unsaturated fatty acids are the major component of vitex oil. oleic and linoleic acids constitute 87% of the fatty acids. while,very low percentage of linolenic acid was found in vitex seeds oil (<0.4%). β-sitosterol and stigmasterol were among the major components,together constituting about 69 % of total sterols. in vitex seeds oil,cholesterol was found at about 0.1% of the total sterols. vitex oil has a strong antifungal activity compared with the conventional fungicides. the mic50,mic90 and the minimal fungicidal concentration (mfc) were respectively 1.75,7 and 7 (mg/ml) against all tested candida species isolated from nosocomial infections in hospitals. our findings demonstrate that vitex oil possesses antifungal activity that might be a natural potential source of antifungal used in food,in cosmetics and in pharmaceuticals products.