Antibacterial and antifungal activity of juniper berry oil and its selected components.

Natalia Filipowicz, Marcin Kamiński, Julianna Kurlenda, Monika Asztemborska, J Renata Ochocka

Department of Biology and Pharmaceutical Botany, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.

Phytotherapy research : PTR 2003 Mar

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Juniper berry oil is stated to possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities and its monographs are included in some National Pharmacopoeias. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of the oil was reported by some authors. In our study we estimated the antibacterial and antifungal activity of three different juniper berry oils and their main components. All the micro-organisms used in this experiment were isolated from patients of Regional Hospital of Gdańsk and some of them showed resistance against commonly used antibiotics. Only one of the oils (labelled A) revealed good antimicrobial properties. None of the single oil components was a stronger antibacterial and antifungal inhibitor than the oil A itself. Our data suggest that the antimicrobial activity of juniper oil A is the result of either the specific composition of the oil A (highest concentration of (-)-alpha-pinene, p-cymene and beta-pinene) or activity of a single non-identified compound. The presence of an adulterant in the oil was excluded. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Citation

Natalia Filipowicz, Marcin Kamiński, Julianna Kurlenda, Monika Asztemborska, J Renata Ochocka. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of juniper berry oil and its selected components. Phytotherapy research : PTR. 2003 Mar;17(3):227-31