Melese Damtew Asfaw, Kebede Nigussie Mekonnen, Abraha Gebrekidan Asgedom
This study aimed to extract and analyze the chemical composition of the stem essential oil of Olea erupaea Mill and extraction of the essential oil was carried out using dry distillation while gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used for the characterization of its composition. A mean oil yield of 5.19% v/w was obtained and GC/MS analysis identified 128 compounds corresponding to 89.4% of the total oil containing methyl ester hexa decanoic acid (4.1%), 2, 4-dimethoxyphenol (4.05%), 2-methoxy phenol (3.25%), 3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxytolune (3.2%), 2-methoxy-5-methylphenol (3.19 as major components. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil was evaluated by disc diffusion method revealing moderate to highest susceptible against C. albican, S. aureus, E. coli, and Salmonellae enterica. This study confirms that the essential oil of Olea erupaea demonstrates significant antimicrobial properties. The antioxidant activity of the Essential oil was tested using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay exhibiting the highest percentage of inhibition with 95.03% at a concentration of 0.1 µg/mL and its IC50 and AAI was 19.9 µg/mL and 5.5 µg/mL, respectively. These results confirmed the great potential of olive stem essential oil and its use in traditional medicine in the locality area.