PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, POLYPHENOLS CONTENT AND A NOVEL SOURCE OF ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF LAURUS NOBILIS FROM MOROCCO

Bacterial resistance and oxidative stress are an important etiology of chronic diseases. This is the reason why new alternatives were established to overcome the incidence of some pathologies. Thus, the present study was aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the extracted oil against bacteria that causes nosocomial infections in neonatal intensive care by using disc diffusion method. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using various methods (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, reducing power assay, total antioxidant activity) and the content of total phenolic and flavonoids were determined. In the essential oil, the twenty-eight compound was identified by GC/MS analysis. The major components were: 1,8-cineol (26.76%), 1-alpha-pinene (8.63%), linalool (7.78%). The oil strongly reduced the DPPH radical (IC50 = 4. 4 mu g/ml) and reducing of molybdate (0.53 +/- 0.0027 mg Eq ascorbic acid/mu g EO. The oil showed strong antibacterial activity against nosocomial bacteria tested. This study confirms the essential oil of laurus nobilis. L processes antibacterial and antioxidant properties in-vitro.