antibacterial activities and chemical composition of essential oils of cupressus sempervirence l. and c. funebris endl. in khuzestan, iran

Essential oils of different plants are widely used in the pharmaceutical and food fields. the chemical composition of essential oils of cupressus sempervirence l. and c. funebris endl. were obtained by a clevenger apparatus and analyzed by chromatography–mass spectrometry (gc/ms) to assess the composition of the essential oils, study antimicrobial properties, and compare the effect of the essential oils of two cupressus species with imipenem as a carbapenem antibiotic on wound infections. the essential oil efficiency was estimated at a rate of 0.3%. in total, ten compounds were identified from the essential oils of each species. the results showed that c. sempervirens mainly consisted of 21.5% totarol, 15.54% delta-3-carene, 14.37% α-pinene, and 11.78% phenanthrene; c. funebris mainly contained 24% α-cedrol, 18.11% naphthalene, 12.96% α-pinene, 10.05% delta-3-carene, and 9.3% α-cedrene. the results of the minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (mbc) showed that the essential oils of two species could inhibit the growth of most strains of pseudomonas aeruginosa (schroeter 1872) migula 1900 (dsm 50071t). time-killing assay revealed that essential oils further reduced bacterial colony growth after 24 hours’ incubation compared to imipenem. however, the essential oils of two cupressus species showed more efficient bactericidal effects versus imipenem.