Chemical Composition, Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Activities of Essential Oil from the Leaves ofHelichrysum odoratissimumgrown in South Africa

The chemistry of Helichrysum odoratissimum (L) Sweet., (family Asteraceae) volatiles grown in South Africa has been studied. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The main compounds were β-pinene (51.6 %) and limonene (16.9 %) among the monoterpenes, while α-humulene (5.6 %) and β-caryophyllene (4.7 %) are the prominent among the sesquiterpenes. The abundance of β-pinene is not a common occurrence when compared with previously reported data on the oil constituents of H. odoratissimum. The volatile oil showed potential antibacterial activities towards some tested microorganisms with mean zones of inhibition and minimal inhibitory concentrations ranging from 14.0±1.3 -17.0±1.7 mm and 0.6-2.5 mg/mL, respectively. The oil exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against brine shrimp larvae with LC50 of 31.16 µg/mL.