Chemical composition and anti-microbial analysis of Mentha arvensis L. and Thymus linearis Benth. essential oils of leaves

This study was performed to evaluate the chemical composition of the essential oils of Mentha arvensis and Thymus linearis and their antimicrobial activities. The complexity of the essential oils is a basic challenge for determining their reliable and accurate compositional data. Rapid advances in spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques have resolved this challenge to a large extent by examining essential oils. Essential oils were analyzed through Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) following extraction through steam distillation from their leaves for the first time in Miandam, District Swat, KP, Pakistan. The GC-MS analysis revealed 26 and 25 components in the essential oil of Mentha arvensis and Thymus linearis respectively. The major components were carvone (23.53%), P-Cymen-2-ol (20.35%), and caryophyllene oxide (18.81%) in Mentha arvensis but Thymus linearis has Thymol (2-isopropyl-5-methyl phenol) (40%), O-Cymene (2-Isopropyltoluene) (14.95%) and beta-bisbolene (12.54%). The essential oils of both plants showed bactericidal activities against five different bacterial strains (i.e. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klesiella pneumonia, Bacillus subtilis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) during disc diffusion method and therefore it is suggested that they may be used as a natural antiseptic and could play important roles in food and pharmaceutical industry.