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.