DETERMINATION OF CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF SELECTED ESSENTIAL OILS FROM MACEDONIAN ORIGIN

Iskra Davkova*, Zoran Zhivikj, Ivana Cvetkovikj Karanfilova, Ana Trajkovska, Veronika Stoilkovska Gjorgievska, Gjose Stefkov, Tatjana Kadifkova Panovsk and Marija Karapandzova

Determination of the chemical profile as well as cytotoxicity of the essential oils can be a very useful method for detecting substances that may provide particular health dangers to humans. GC/MS method was used for determination of the chemical composition of six essential oils. The most dominant compounds were linalool (33.73%) and linalool acetate (18.89%) in Lavandulae, o-cymene (38.60%) and thymol (35.06%) in Thymi, 1,8-cineol (27.42%) in Rosmarini, terpinen-4-ol (39.06%) and γ-terpinene (21.03%) in Melaleucae, α-pinene (26.49%) in Helichrysi and zonarene (13.28%), α-pinene (13.24%), viridiflorene (9.02%) and γ-cadinene (8.19%) in Calendulae essential oil. The cytotoxic potential was evaluated by Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay. After 24 hours, LC50 values had decreasing rate in the following order: 58.09 μg/mL, 57.95 μg/mL, 43.02 μg/mL, 19.38 μg/mL and 13.85 μg/mL, for Lavandulae, Helichrysi, Melaleucae, Calendulae and Rosmarini essential oil, respectively. There are no living shrimps in the 4th hour after application of Thymi essential oil, as the LC50 value (0.75 μg/mL) was exceedingly low in the first hour.