The present study compared microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MWHD) and conventional hydrodistillation (HD) with respect to essential oil yield and antimicrobial activity of oils obtained from disintegrated wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum L.) herb, while the chemical composition of the MWHD-derived essential oil was characterized by GC–MS/GC–FID. MWHD significantly improved the essential oil yield (4.52% w/w) compared with HD (2.99% w/w), demonstrating the efficiency of the intensified extraction process. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis identified a thymol-rich chemotype, with thymol (51.8%), γ-terpinene (24.4%), and p-cymene (19.5%) as the predominant constituents. Antimicrobial activity, evaluated by the disc diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods, showed assay-dependent differences between the MWHD- and HD-derived essential oils, with the MWHD-derived oil exhibiting stronger activity against certain tested microorganisms. The lowest MIC value (8 µL/mL) was recorded for Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis. In conclusion, under the applied experimental conditions, MWHD provided a higher essential oil yield than HD, while the MWHD-derived oil exhibited stronger antimicrobial activity against certain tested microorganisms.
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Ilić et al. (2026) studied this question.
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