Abstract

Many bioactive compounds are produced by the medicinal plants that have important pharmacological activities. The present study describes the chemical composition, antifungal, phytotoxic, brine shrimp cytotoxic, insecticidal and antibacterial activities of essential oils from Acacia modesta. The oils were extracted from the n-hexane fraction of the aerial parts of the plant and were analyzed by gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The results revealed 38 components from the oil of A. modesta. The oils exhibited moderate antifungal activity (40%) against Microsporum canis and low against Fusarium solani (25%). At the concentration of 1000 and 100 µg/ml, the oils showed moderate phytotoxic activity of 50 and 40%, respectively, against Lemna minor. The oils were highly cytotoxic at the concentration of 100 µg/ml killing all the shrimps in the experiment. At the concentration of 10 µg/ml only 2 and at concentration of 1 µg/ml, only 8 shrimps survived out of 30. The oils showed no antibacterial and insecticidal activity against the test organisms.        

Key words: Essential oil, Acacia modesta, antibacterial, antifungal, phytotoxic, insecticidal brine shrimp cytotoxicity.