Chemical composition, antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity of essential oil from Pistacia vera L. var. Sarakhs leaf

Chemical composition, antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity of the essential oil obtained from the leaf of Pistacia vera L. var. Sarakhs was investigated in the present study. Chemical composition of the essential oil was analyzed using Gas chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) method. Twenty eight compounds, representing 98.28% of the total oil, were characterized. The oil was predominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons (48.8%), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (35.68%) and oxygenated monoterpenes (11.5%). The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was investigated against four bacterial strains and one fungus. The essential oil showed a good activity against Gram-positive bacteria particularly Staphylococcus aureus (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] and minimum bactericidal concentration [MBC] = 16 µg/ml) and Bacillus cereus (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] and minimum bactericidal concentration [MBC] = 90 µg/ml). However, Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were resistant to the essential oil (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] and minimum bactericidal concentration [MBC] = 135 µg/ml). The antioxidant potential of essential oil was examined using DPPH, FRAP and β-carotene/linoleic acid (BCB) assay. The oil was considerably active in the DPPH assay (IC50 = 19.03 ± 0.005 µg/ml). Moreover, in vitro cytotoxic activity was assessed against three cancer cell lines (MCF-7, PC3 and DU-145) using Alamar blue assay, with IC50 value less than 32.20 µg/ml for MCF-7 cells.