Study on antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of chemically profiled essential oils extracted from Juniperus phoenicea (L.) by use of in vitro and in silico approaches

Juniperus phoenicea (L.) is a medicinal plant that has been used in phytotherapy as a treatment of certain pathological infections. In this context, the present work aimed to valorize the essential oil of J. phoenicea seeds (EOGP) by studying its chemical composition, and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The EOGP was extracted by use of hydrodistillation and characterized by gas chromatography (GC–MS). The antioxidant power was evaluated by three methods (TAC, DPPH, and FRAP). The antimicrobial power was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC6633), Escherichia coli (K12), Bacillus subtilis (DSM6333), Proteus mirabilis (ATCC29906), Candida albicans (ATCC10231), Aspergillus niger (MTCC282), Aspergillus flavus (MTCC9606), and Fusarium oxysporum (MTCC9913). The GC/MS results revealed a total identification of 99.98% with a dominance of carvacrol (39.81%) followed by p-cymen-3-ol (34.44%) and o-cymene (13.60%). Findings showed that EOGP exhibited important antioxidant power as IC50 was determined to be 26 µg/mL for 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, while EC50 was 216.34 µg/mL for ferric reducing antioxidant power and total antioxidant capacity was 720 mg AAE/g. The antimicrobial power on solid medium revealed that the inhibition diameters ranged from 11.30 ± 0.58 to 20 mm for the bacterial strains and from 9.33 ± 0.57 to 54.43 ± 0.29 mm for fungi. Notably, minimum inhibitory concentrations ranged from 18 to 19 µg/mL for bacterial strains and from 5.04 to 10.09 µg/mL for fungal strains. Overall, our results demonstrated the importance of EOGP as a source of natural antioxidant and antibacterial medicines against clinically relevant pathogenic strains.