Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil of thyme (Thymus vulgaris) from eastern Morocco.

The essential oil from flowering Thyme (Thymis vulgaris L.) an aromatic member of the Lamiaceae family, from Morocco, obtained by hydrodistillation, was analysed by GC/FID and GC/MS. The constituents were identified by their mass spectra and Kovats’ indices. Forty three compounds consisting 97.85% of the total components were identified from the oil obtained with 1% yield. Among those, camphor (38.54%), camphene (17.19%), α-pinene (9.35%), 1, 8-cineole (5.44%), borneol (4.91%) and β-pinene (3.90%) were the major oil components. Essential oil of Thyme was evaluated for its antibacterial activities against six Gram-positive and Gram negative pathogenic bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, Streptococcus sp., Pantoa sp. and Escherichia coli.