Abstract
The present work has studied the chemical composition of the essential oil (EO) extracted from the fresh leaves of Crassocephalum rubens and tested its efficacy against some pathogenic microorganisms isolated from common foods largely consumed, which had been incriminated as responsible of food infections and toxi-infections. The chemical composition of the essential oil extracted from the fresh leaves of Crassocephalum rubens, has revealed the presence of limonene (48.8%), myrcene (30.7%), E-(ß)-ocimene (7.4%) and a-thujene (4.6%) as the main components. In addition some oxygenated components had been identified. They are linalool, terpinen-4-ol, p-cymen-8-ol, E-nerolidiol and E-bisabol-11-ol. The Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) determined on some bacteria Gram+ (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis), bacteria Gram- (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi) and against a pathogenic yeast (Candida albicans) vary from 0.54 mg/mL to 4.38 mg/mL. The two Gram+ are more sensitive to the EO activity while the two Gram- less sensitive and Candida albicans relatively resistant to the EO activity.