ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF
THYME ESSENTIAL OILS AND THE POLYPHENOLIC CONTENT OF
DIFFERENT THYMUS EXTRACTS
ERZSÉBET VARGA1*, ANNA BARDOCZ1, ÁGNES BELÁK2, ANNA MARÁZ2, BORBÁLA BOROS3, ATTILA FELINGER3, ANDREA BÖSZÖRMÉNYI4, GYÖRGYI HORVÁTH5
1University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Tg. Mureş, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacognosy and
Phytotherapy, Târgu. Mureş, Romania
2Corvinus University of Budapest, Faculty of Food Science, Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Budapest, Hungary
3University of Pécs, Faculty of Science, Department of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Pécs, Hungary
4Semmelweis University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmacognosy, Budapest, Hungary
5University of Pécs, Medical School, Department of Pharmacognosy, Pécs, Hungary
*corresponding author: verzsebet@yahoo.com
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Abstract:
Thymus species belonging to the Lamiaceae family are popular spices and contain volatile oils as main chemical constituent.
Different Thymus species (Thymus vulgaris, Thymus serpyllum, Thymus pulegioides, and Thymus glabrescens) were collected
from the Medicinal Plant Garden of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Târgu. Mureş (Romania). Volatile oils from
these species were separated by distillation and their antimicrobial activity was determined by agar-diffusion method. SPMEGC-
MS was used to determine the chemical composition of the oils. The polyphenol content of the hydrophilic extracts
prepared from Thymus serpyllum, Thymus pulegioides and Thymus glabrescens was determined using the LC-MS technique.
Thymol (32.2% and 27.4%) was the main compound in Thymus vulgaris and Thymus pulegioides oils, respectively, while
carvacrol (25.8%) in Thymus serpyllum oil, and terpinyl acetate (47.6%) in Thymus glabrescens oil. Complete inhibition of
the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria innocua and Streptococcus pyogenes has been achieved by volatile oils of
the four Thymus spp. Quantitative differences in flavonoid content of Thymus extracts were found using the LC-MS
measurement. The detected polyphenolic and volatile oil compounds can be considered as chemically and biologically
relevant agents of the examined aromatic plants.






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