Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil of flowers from Banisteriopsis campestris (A. Juss.) Little

The essential oil (EO) of the flowers of Banisteriopsis campestris was analysed by GC and GC-MS. Fatty acids were the most abundant class of compounds in the EO, followed by long-chain alkanes and oxygenated sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes. The main constituents were hexadecanoic acid (39.43%), (E)-nerolidol (10.51%), triacontane (9.08%), heptacosane (5.49%) and linalool (3.23%). The antimicrobial activity of the EO was evaluated against aerobic and anaerobic oral bacteria and some yeasts by broth microdilution method. The EO inhibited the growth of all tested oral bacteria, showing strong activity against S. sanguinis with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 25 microgramas/mL. Considerable antibacterial activity was also observed for the anaerobes Porphyromonas gingivalis and Actinomyces naeslundii with MIC of 50 microgramas/mL. The EO of B. campestris flower showed moderate activity for S. mutans, S. mitis, A. actinomycetemcomitans and Fusobacterium nucleatum with MICs ranging between 200 and 400 microgramas/mL. The antifungal activity was evaluated against C. albicans, C. tropicalis and C. glabrata. The MIC results were above 3000 microgramas/mL, indicating inactivity against these yeasts. This study revealed that the OE of B. campestris flowers has promising antibacterial activity and this is the first report on its chemical composition and antimicrobial activity.