Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil of Alpinia menghaiensis S.Q. Tong & Y.M. Xia in S.Q. Tong from Vietnam

The chemical constituents and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil isolated from the rhizomes of Alpinia menghaiensis S.Q. Tong & Y.M. Xia in S.Q. Tong from Vietnam was studied and reported. The techniques of gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were used to characterize the chemical constituents of the essential oil while the microdilution assay was used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity. The main compounds identified in the rhizome essential oil consist of β-pinene (46.5%), β-phellandrene (25.7%) and α-pinene (8.5%). The studied essential oil inhibited the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853 with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) value of 15.32 μg/mL ±0.01, and median inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 32.0 ±0.01 μg/mL. The essential oil also displayed activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 (MIC 31.57 ±0.01 μg/mL) and Bacillus cereus ATCC14579 (MIC, 34.21 μg/mL ±0.01 μg/mL), and IC50 value of 64.0 ±0.01 μg/mL. This is the first report on the rhizome oil composition, as well as the antimicrobial of essential oils from A. menghaiensis. The paper discusses further the comparative analysis of essential oils from A. menghaiensis.