Effect of gamma irradiation on chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Thymus vulgaris and Mentha pulegium essential oils

The effects of gamma irradiation doses (10, 20 and 30 kGy) on chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Thymus vulgaris and Mentha pulegium essential oils (EOs) have been studied. The chromatographic analysis showed that the studied EOs were constituted mainly by carvacrol for T. vulgaris and pulegone for M. pulegium. Gamma irradiation on the studied doses, affects quantitatively and not qualitatively some components of the investigated oils. This effect was dose dependent. While the antioxidant activity remains stable at any dose applied for the plants studied, the antimicrobial activity increased in the irradiated samples for gram negative bacteria and did not change for gram+bacteria. This study supports that gamma irradiation employed at sterilizing doses did not compromise the biological activities of medicinal and aromatic plants.