Chemical and Biological Characteristics of Essential Oil ofRosmarinus officinalisCultivated in Djerba

The essential oils extracted by Clavenger apparatus from leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis cultivated in different areas in Djerba (Island in the southern of Tunisia) were evaluated for their chemical composition (GC and GC-MS methods), antioxidant (DPPH method) and antibacterial activities (agar-well diffusion method). GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of three chemotypes of oils: 1,8-cineole, 1,8-cineole/camphor/α-pinene/camphene and 1,8-cineole/camphor/α-pinene/ verbenone/borneol which was not previously detected in Tunisian Rosmarinus officinalis. The three chemtypes exhibited moderate antioxidant activity with an IC50 ranged from 4.186 mg/ml for chemotype I to 7.298 for chemotype II and showed strong to moderate antibacterial activity against the six bacterial strains tested with a MIC ranged from 0.156 to 1.25 mg/mL (Chemotype I and chemotype II) and from 1.25 to 5 mg/mL (chemotype III). This study showed that the essential oil extracted from Rosmarinus officinalis cultivated in Djerba has similar chemical composition and biological activities as essential oil isolated from wild growing Rosmarinus officinalis.