Antimicrobial Activity and Phytochemical Analysis of Essential Oil of Carum Carvi, an Important Phytofood of Indian Folk Medicinal Plants

Abstract The present study was done to investigate the chemical constituents of Carum carvi Linn (Caraway) and to evaluate their antimicrobial activity. The fresh plants and seeds were collected from Himalayan hills of Uttarakhand state of India. Essential oil was obtained via steam distillation followed by chromatographic separation (TLC, GC-MS). Head space GC-MS was also done for quantification of highly volatile compounds. Biological activity of oil was evaluated by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration, which was found active against both bacteria and fungi. The MIC of the samples ranged from 50 µg/ml to 100 µg/ml. The antibacterial activity of Carum carvi essential oil is apparently due to carvone (23.3%), limonene (18.2%), carvacrol (6.7%), and linalool (0.3%), which inhibit the growth of fungi and bacteria.