Acta Pharm. 52 (2002) 305-311

Potential antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of some Macedonian Thymus tosevii Vel. (Lamiaceae) varietes

SVETLANA KULEVANOVA,^1* ANA KAFTANDZIEVA,²  ANETA DIMITROVSKA,³ 
GJOSHE STEFKOV¹and   NIKOLA PANOVSKI² 

svku@baba.ff.ukim.edu.mk

¹Institute of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ss. Cyryl and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
²Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ss. Cyryl and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
³Institute of Drug Quality Control, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ss. Cyryl and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Antimicrobial activity of ten essential oils obtained from Thymus tosevii subsp. tosevii var. tosevii, var. degenii, var. longifrons and subsp.substriatus was investigated by agar diffusion and broth dilution methods. Thymus tosevii essential oils showed strong antibacterial activity against eleven bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcus luteus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus viridans, Moraxella catarhalis, Haemophilus influenzae, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella aerogenes, Acinetobacter ssp.) as well as antifungal activity against Candida albicans. These oils could replace the official Thymi ateheroleum in natural remedies intended for inhalation or for treatment of mouth and throat inflammations. The observed activity of the some investigated varieties may be due to the presence of thymol carvacrol, geraniol and linalool, which account for 17.3-42.5% of the essential oils.

Keywords: Thymus tosevii, var. tosevii, var. degenii, var. longifrons, subsp. substriatus, essential oil, antimicrobial activity