Acta Pharm. 55 (2005) 417-422

Antimicrobial activity of juniper berry essential oil (Juniperus communis L., Cupressaceae)

STJEPAN PEPELJNJAK^1*, IVAN KOSALEC¹, ZDENKA KALOGJERA² and NIKOLA BLAZEVIC³

spep@yahoo.com

¹Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
²Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
³Irex-Aroma, Zagreb, Croatia

Juniper essential oil (Juniperi aetheroleum) was obtained from the juniper berry, and the GC/MS analysis showed that the main compounds in the oil were alpha-pinene (29.17%) and betha-pinene (17.84%), sabinene (13.55%), limonene (5.52%), and mircene (0.33%). The juniper essential oil was evaluated for the antimicrobial activity against sixteen bacterial species, seven yeast-like fungi, three yeast and four dermatophyte strains. Juniper essential oil showed similar bactericidal activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species; with MIC values between 8 and 70% (V/V) as well as a strong fungicidal activity against yeasts, yeast-like fungi and dermatophytes, with the MIC values below 10%, V/V. The strongest fungicidal activity was recorded against Candida spp. (MIC from 0.78 to 2 %, V/V) and dermatophytes (from 0.39 to 2%, V/V).

Keywords: Juniperus communis, juniper, essential oil, antibacterial, antifungal activity