Determination of Antimicrobial Activity and Chemical Composition of Pimento & Ginger Essential Oil

Abstract

The essential oil was obtained from pimento (Pimenta racemosa Mill.) and ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) through hydrodistillation method. The chemical composition of pimento and ginger essential oils were analyzed by GC-MS. It was found that the most abundant components were methyleugenol (52.33%) and zingiberene (16.32%) in essential oils of pimento and ginger, respectively. The antimicrobial activities of essential oils were investigated against 18 microorganisms with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. While pimento essential oil behaved strong antimicrobial against all bacteria apart from S. epidermidis, ginger essential oil exhibited poor activity against all bacteria. As a result of this study; it can be suggested that pimento essential oil is a preservative in the medicinal application and food industry. © 2017, Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India. All rights reserved.

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S230 Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research | Vol 51 | Issue 3 | Jul-Sep, 2017(Special Issue)
Original Arcle
www.ijper.org
Determination of Antimicrobial Activity and Chemical
Composition of Pimento & Ginger Essential Oil
Nesrin Şener*1, Sevil Özkinali2, Mahmut Gür3, Kerim Güney4, Osman Emre Özkan3,
Moustafa Milad Khalifa4
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science-Arts, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, TURKEY
2Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science-Arts, Hitit University, Çorum, TURKEY
3Department of Forest Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, TURKEY
4Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, TURKEY
ABSTRACT
The essential oil was obtained from pimento (Pimenta racemosa Mill.) and ginger (Zingiber
officinale Rosc.) through hydrodistillation method. The chemical composition of pimento
and ginger essential oils were analyzed by GC-MS. It was found that the most abundant
components were methyleugenol (52.33%) and zingiberene (16.32%) in essential oils
of pimento and ginger, respectively. The antimicrobial activities of essential oils were
investigated against 18 microorganisms with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)
method. While pimento essential oil behaved strong antimicrobial against all bacteria
apart from S. epidermidis, ginger essential oil exhibited poor activity against all bacteria.
As a result of this study; it can be suggested that pimento essential oil is a preservative
in the medicinal application and food industry.
Keywords: Pimento, Ginger, Essential oil, Antimicrobial Activity, Hydrodistillation
method, Chemical composition.
DOI: 10.5530/ijper.51.3s.19
Correspondence:
Nesrin Şener,
Department of Chemistry,
Faculty of Science-Arts,
Kastamonu University,
Kastamonu, TURKEY
Phone no: +90-3662801972
E-mail: nsener@kastamonu.
edu.tr
INTRODUCTION
Pimenta racemosa (Miller) J. Moore is a Caribbean
tree which grows to a height of about 15 m.
It is known to exist in ve varieties. Pimenta
racemosa is the most widespread among this
varieties.1 Pimento is commonly used for
aromatizing foods. It is used in process of
the manufacturing of creams, lotions, deter-
gents, or in the shampoos. It is also used in
cosmetics industry.2,3 Ginger oil is usually
produced from dried ginger by steam disti-
llation method.4 The ginger has been used
in traditional medicine for treating several
sicknesses such as coughs, sinusitis, sore
throats, fever and u.5 Ginger extracts,
gingerols, and gingerdiol were found to
exhibit antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal
activities.6-9 Also, their synergistic antimicro-
bial effects4 and antihyperlipidemic effects10
have been recently reported. The main
purpose of the current study is to determine
the chemical composition and antimicrobial
activities of pimento and ginger essential
oils.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Plant Material and Extraction of
Essential Oil
The plant materials obtained from Ankara
and identied by the Dr. Kerim Güney.
Essential oil was obtained by hydro distillation
process using a Clevenger’s type apparatus.
GC-MS Analyze
GC-MS QP 2010 Ultra (Shimadzu)
equipped with Rtx-5MS capillary column
was used.
Microorganism Strains
Most of the strains were ATCC, DSMZ
and SL type standard strains. Other strains,
which have no standard ID information were
isolated from food samples and identied

Nesrin et al.: Chemical Composition of Pimento and Ginger
Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research | Vol 51 | Issue 3 | Jul-Sep, 2017 (Special Issue) S231
at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, and
Ankara University.
Antimicrobial Activity
A broth microdilution MIC test was applied according
to the literature.11 Two-fold dilutions of the oils were
prepared ranging from 100 µg/mL to 0.195 µg/mL by
using 96-well micro titration plate. Each well is inocu-
lated with an inoculum prepared as mentioned before.
The micro titration plates were incubated at 37 °C for
24 h for bacteria strains, where 27 °C for 48 h for
C. albicans.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
GC-MS analyses revealed that methyleugenol (52.33%),
chavibetol (19.47%), caryophyllene (4.96%), myrcene
(3.72%), eucalyptol (2.46%) and α-terpineol (2.38%)
identied as the components of essential oils;
ginger
contains
zingiberene (16.32%),
curcumene (12.42%),
sesquiphellandrene (11.40%), farnesene (6.51%),
β-phellandrene (6.01%), β-bisabolene (4.23%), 10-β(H)-
cadina-1(6),4-diene (3.21%), acoradiene (3.00%)
,
camphene (2.92%) and
eucalyptol (2.48%) as shown
in Table 1.
According to the Table 2, pimento essential oil showed
an antimicrobial activity against all microorganisms
with a MIC value ranging from <0.195 to 100 µg/mL.
However, ginger essential oil presented antimicrobial
activity against some microorganisms with a MIC value
ranging between 3.125 and 100 µg/mL. The pimento
essential oil showed very strong antimicrobial activity
against C. albicans, E. faecalis, E. aerogenes, E. durans,
E. faecium, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, L. monocytogenes, L. innocua,
P. aeruginosa, P. uorescence, S. infantis, S. kentucky,
S. typhimurium and S. aureus with a MIC value of <0.195
µg/mL for all microorganisms. Also, the pimento essential
oil showed strong antimicrobial activity against B. subtilis
and S. enteritidis with a MIC value of 0.781 and 3.125
µg/mL, respectively.
The pimento essential oil showed very strong antimi-
crobial activity against 15 different test microorganisms.
Table 1: Main components of essential oil scanning in GC-MS
Essential Oil Components Area % Essential Oil Components Area %
Pimento
methyleugenol 52.33
Ginger
zingiberene 16.32
chavibetol 19.47 curcumene 12.42
caryophyllene 4.96 sesquiphellandrene 11.40
myrcene 3.72 farnesene 6.51
eucalyptol 2.46 β-phellandrene 6.01
α-terpineol 2.38 β-bisabolene 4.23
10-β(H)-cadina-1(6),4-diene 3.21
acoradiene 3.00
camphene 2.92
eucalyptol 2.48
Table 2: MIC values for pimento and ginger (µg/mL)
Microorganisms Pimento Ginger Microorganisms Pimento Ginger
Bacillus subtilis DSMZ 1971 0.781 - Listeria innocua <0.195 -
Candida albicans DSMZ 1386 <0.195 100 Pseudomonas aeruginosa DSMZ 50071 <0.195 100
Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 <0.195 100 Pseudomonas uorescence P1 <0.195 3.125
Enterobacter aerogenes ATCC 13048 <0.195 - Salmonella enteritidis ATCC 13075 3.125 -
Enterococcus durans <0.195 - Salmonella infantis <0.195 -
Enterococcus faecium <0.195 - Salmonella kentucky <0.195 -
Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 <0.195 - Salmonella typhimurium SL 1344 <0.195 -
Klebsiella pneumoniae <0.195 - Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 <0.195 100
Listeria monocytogenes <0.195 25 Staphylococcus epidermidis DSMZ 20044 100 6.25

Nesrin et al.: Chemical Composition of Pimento and Ginger
S232 Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research | Vol 51 | Issue 3 | Jul-Sep, 2017 (Special Issue)
Also, pimento showed strong antimicrobial activity
against two microorganisms, but pimento did not show
any antimicrobial activity against S. epidermidis. Interest-
ingly, ginger had strong antibacterial activities against
P. uorescence and S. epidermidis. Previous studies revealed
that the essential oils of pimento have been found to
possess signicant antimicrobial and antioxidative activ-
ities.12-14 Contrary to pimento, the ginger essential oil
did not show very strong antimicrobial activity against
other test microorganisms. As a result, although the
ginger essential oil had a strong antimicrobial activity
against two microorganisms, it had moderate and weak
antimicrobial activity against one microorganism
(L. monocytogenes) and four microorganisms (Candida albicans,
E. faecalis, P. aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus), respectively.
CONCLUSION
Finally, it can be suggested that the essential oils
of pimento have strong antibacterial activities against
different microorganisms of importance to food
spoilage and poisoning. The pimento essential oils may
nd industrial applications as natural preservatives and
antimicrobial agents in cosmetics and food industries.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors thank to Kastamonu University.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
None
ABBREVIATION USED
GC-MS: Gas Chromatography Mass Spectometry.
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SUMMARY
• The essential oil was obtained from pimento
and ginger through hydrodistillation method.
• The chemical composition of pimento and gin-
ger essential oils were analyzed by GC-MS.
• The antimicrobial activities of essential oils
were
• Investigated against 18 microorganisms with
minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)
method.
PICTORIAL ABSTRACT

Nesrin et al.: Chemical Composition of Pimento and Ginger
Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research | Vol 51 | Issue 3 | Jul-Sep, 2017 (Special Issue) S233
Cite this article: Sener N, Özkinali S, Gür M, Güney K, Özkan OE, Khalifa MM. Determination of Antimicrobial
Activity and Chemical Composition of Pimento & Ginger Essential Oil. Indian J of Pharmaceutical Education and
Research. 2017;51(3)Suppl:S230-33.
Mahmut GÜR has been working as Assistant Professor in Kastamonu University at Forest Industrial
Engineering department, Kastamonu. He is interesting in the development of synthetic molecules.
He has published a number of publications in different Journals in National and International Repute.
ABOUT AUTHORS
Mostafa B. Khalifa Milad continues to his Ph.D. at the department of botanic, in Forest Engineering
Faculty at Kastamonu University, Faculty of Forestry.
Osman Emre Özkan is working as a research assistant in Forest Industry Engineering Department,
Faculty of Forestry in Kastamonu University, TURKEY. Research interests include non-wood forest
product and its biological activity.
Kerim GÜNEY has been working as Assistant Professor at Botanic department, Forest Engineering
Faculty in Kastamonu University. Kerim Güney has many Publications on flora, vegetation,
biodiversity and medical and aromatic plants.
Dr. Nesrin Şener is working as Assistant Professor in Kastamonu University at Chemistry department,
Kastamonu. She keeps her interests in the development of synthetic molecules as dyes. She has
published a number of publications in different Journals in National and International Repute.
Dr. Sevil Özkınalı is Assistant Proffesor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Literature,
Hitit University, Çorum, TURKEY. Her areas of research interest include ‘Calixarene Chemistry and
Spectroscopic Characterization’, ‘Synthetic Organic Chemistry-and their Antimicrobial-Antioxidant
Properties’’ and ‘Azo dyes, Schiff bases’.