ANTIMICROBIAL AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITIES OF ORIGANUM ESSENTIAL OILS

Three Origanum essential oils, Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum, Origanum dictamnus, and a commercially available Origanum oil, were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and showed a high conten t-of carvacrol, thymol, gamma-terpinene, and p-cymene representing 73. 7%, 92.8%, and 87.78% of the total oil, respectively. The three essent ial oils exhibited high levels of antimicrobial activity against-eight strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Among the major components of the three oils, carvacrol and thymol exhibited the highe st levels of antimicrobial activity, while their biosynthetic precurso rs gamma-terpinene and p-cymene were inactive. The essential oil of O. vulgare ssp. hirtum was extremely bactericidal at 1/4000 dilution and even at dilutions as high as 1/50000 caused considerable decrease in bacterial growth rates. The same essential oil also exhibited high lev els of cytotoxicity against four permanent animal cell lines including two derived from human cancers.