Composition and Antibacterial Activity of the Volatile Oils from Different Parts of Achillea tenuifolia Lam. from Iran

Background: achillea tenuifolia lam. (compositae) with small yellow flowers and several timespinnately divided leaves in worm shape is known for many years in the folk medicine. it has beenused to reduce sweating and to stop bleeding. it helps regulation of the menstrual cycle andreduces heavy bleeding and pain.materials and methods: plant material (flower, leaf and stem) was collected in khalkhal –ardabil road area, at an altitude of 1650 m in northwest of iran. plant materials were air dried150g of flower; 150g of leaf and 200g of stem were subjected to 3h of hydrodistillation in aclevenger-type apparatus, separately. the hydrodistilled essential oils were analyzed by gc andgc/ms methods. antibacterial activities of the oils were evaluated by the disc diffusion methodusing mueller-hinton agar for bacteria.results: the oil of flower was characterized by higher amount of limonene (23.2%) and α-cadinol (18.2%). twenty one constituents representing (92.2%) of the leaf oil were identified ofwhich limonene (25.2%), α- pinene (14.4%), caryophyllene oxide (6.5%), α- gurjunene (6.3%),bornyl acetate (5.5%) and δ-cadinene (4.4%) were major components. the main components ofthe stem oil were limonene (23.6%), α- pinene (13.4%) and spathulenol (6.4%). the oils showedinhibitory effects on escherichia coli and salmonella typhi.conclusions: the main components of the oil of flower, leaf and stem were limonene, α-cadinol,α- pinene and spathulenol, but borneol, bornyl acetate, camphor, α- and β-thujone, and 1, 8-cineol were found as the main components of essential oils of many other achillea species. thesevariations may be attributed mainly to variation in their agroclimatic and geographicalconditions. the results indicated that three oils were found to be active against bacteria, the oilfrom the flower was found to be more active than the oil from the leaf and stem.