Research Article
Zeghib A, Laggoune S, Kabouche
Abstract
The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil of Thymus numidicus Poiret, collected from Constantine (Eastern Algerian), was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. 33 components representing 98.14% % of the essential oil were detected with thymol (23,92%), linalool (17.20%), o-cymene (11.41%), g-terpinene (10.84%), thymol methyl ether (6,73%) and carvacrol (6,02%) as the major components. The antibacterial activity of the essential oil was tested against 10 gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria by the use of the disc diffusion method. The antioxidant activity was also investigated by the use of β-carotene bleaching method.