Inhibitory Activity and Chemical Characterization of Daucus carota subsp. maximus Essential Oils

The essential oils ( EO s) of green seeds from Daucus carota subsp. maximus growing wild in Pantelleria Island (Sicily, Italy) were characterized. EO s were extracted by steam distillation, examined for their inhibitory properties against food‐borne Gram ‐positive and Gram ‐negative bacteria and analyzed for the chemical composition by gas chromatography ( GC ) and mass spectrometry ( MS ). Undiluted EO s showed a large inhibition spectrum against Gram ‐positive strains and also vs. Acinetobacter spp. and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia . The minimum inhibition concentration ( MIC ) was in the range 1.25 – 2.50 μl/ml for the most sensitive strains. The chemical analysis indicated that D .  carota subsp. maximus EO s included 34 compounds (five monoterpene hydrocarbons, six oxygenated monoterpenes, 14 sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, four oxygenated sesquiterpenes, camphorene and four other compounds), accounting for 95.48% of the total oil, and that the major chemicals were carotol, β ‐bisabolene, and isoelemicin.