ACTIVIDAD ANTIOXIDANTE DEL ACEITE ESENCIAL DE ORéGANO (Lippia origanoides H.B.K) DEL ALTO PATíA

because of the potential carcinogenic effects of some synthetic antioxidants research on the collection and evaluation of natural antioxidants have a growing interest. in this work was analyzed the composition and evaluated the antioxidant activity of an oregano species (lippiaoriganoides h.b.k) that grows wild in the region of alto patía, southwestern colombia. the essential oils were obtained from oregano leaves by steam distillation technique. the chemical composition was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms), identifying the constituent based on their fragmentation patterns and kovat's indices. the antioxidant activity was evaluated by spectrophotometric methods dpph* and abts*+. the main components were thymol (73.7%), ρ-cymene (10.5%), myrcene(3.1%) and γ-terpinene (2.9%). ec50 values (essential oil concentration that reduces 50% of dpph* radicals) and teac (trolox equivalent antioxidant activity) for the oregano essential oils (oeo) and bht were 5.58 and 1.33 mg/ml and 0.33 and 0.68 mg/ml, respectively, indicating that the antioxidant capacity of the oeo is similar to that of bht, which can be attributed to the synergistic action of its phenolic compounds.the highextraction yieldand content ofthymol inoregano essentialoilof alto patíamake this specieshas a highpotentialfor obtainingnatural antioxidants.