Chemical composition and biological activities of essential oils and methanolic extracts obtained from wild and cultivated types of Thymus fedtschenkoi from East Azarbayjan, Iran

The aim of this research was to compare the chemical composition and the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of wild and cultivated types of T. fedtschenkoi collected from East Azarbayjan, Iran.  The essential oils (EOs) from aerial parts of wild and cultivated T. fedtschenkoi were investigated by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Antibacterial activities of EOs and methanol extracts were tested against bacteria by disc diffusion method and determining their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values by agar dilution method and antioxidant activity by DPPH and FRAP assays. Twenty-two components were identified representing more than 99.20% of the total oil constituents. The major components in the oils of the wild type were; thymol (49.21%), p-cymene (15.20%) and Carvacrol (10.20%) and for the cultivated type were; thymol (62.33%) and carvacrol (7.12%). The MIC values of bacterial strains, which were sensitive to the EO of T. fedtschenkoi, were in the range of 2-128 μg/mL in wild type and 2-16 μg/mL in cultivated type.  Our data show that cultivation significantly affects the EOs’ chemical composition and antioxidant potential of T. fedtschenkoi. They signify a reasonable source of natural antibacterial substances that proved to be potential as a drug for use in pathogenic bacteria.The antibacterial activity by the presence of inhibition zone appeared from EOs in the cultivated type on all tested microorganisms significantly higher than that in the wild type, which can be attributed to the presence of high concentration of thymol (47.48%) against the wild type (29.96%).