Composition, antibacterial and antioxidant activity of the essential oil of Thymus guyonii de Noé from Algeria

The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled esse ntial oil of Thymus guyonii de Noe, collected from ZelfanaProvince of Ghardaia (Algerian Septentrional Sahara ), was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Nineteen component s representing 94.63% of the essential oil were detec ted with carvacrol (55.55%), thymol (19.51%) and p-cymene (6.25%) as the major components. The antibacterial activity of the essential oil was tested against 9 gram-pos itive and gram-negative bacteria by the use of the disc d iffusion method. The antioxidant activity was also investigated by the use of β-carotene bleaching method.