Chemical composition and biological properties of Satureja avromanica Maroofi.

Satureja avromanica is an indigenous plant which is frequently used as a spice in Avraman-Kurdistan region of Iran. The present study aimed to investigate the chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the S. avromanica. In addition, rosmarinic acid and total phenolic content of S. avromanica was assessed by spectrophotometric method and HPTLC. The essential oil and methanolic extract were isolated by hydrodistillation and maceration methods, respectively. A total of 32 compounds representing 98.6% of the essential oil were identified by GC-MS and GC-FID. The main constituents were n-pentacosane (23.8%), spathulenol (11.5%), β-bourbonen (11.3%) and n-docosane (11.0%). The antibacterial activity of samples were carried out by disc diffusion method and evaluate the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) essential oil and methanolic extract were found to be effective against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus pumilus. The highest scavenging activity was found for methanolic extract of S. avromanica (21.58 µg/mL) and the total phenolics of methanolic extract of S. avromanica was 95.3 mg GAE/g. The rosmarinic acid content of S. avromanica methanolic extract was 0.83 mg/g plant. Antioxidant activity and rosmarininc acid content of S. avromanica suggests that the essential oil and methanolic extract of S. avromanica has great potential for application as a natural antimicrobial and antioxidant agent to preserve food.