Composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oils from Poiretia bahiana C. Müller (Papilionoideae-Leguminosae)

poiretia bahiana known as "arrudinha", "arruda da serra" or "arruda brava", has its occurrence restricted to the rock fields (campo rupestre) areas in chapada diamantina, bahia, northeastern region of brazil. its aerial parts present a pungent smell and have been used by local communities as fumigant for the control of infestation of fleas and in the treatment of hemorrhoids, articulations pain and sinusitis. this work reports the composition of the volatile oils from aerial parts of five specimens and of the essential oil from the fruits of one specimen of poiretia bahiana that were harvested in four different places of chapada diamantina. twenty nine components were identified from the oils analyzed by gc-fid and gc-ms. umbellulone, in concentrations between 55.0% and 75.3% and sabinene, in concentrations between 10.3% and 25.2% are the major components. the oil from the aerial parts of one specimen and the oil of fruits of another specimen had their antimicrobial properties evaluated against six bacteria, two yeasts and five filamentous fungi by the agar diffusion method and microdilution assay. the in vitro results demonstrated that these essential oils exhibit antimicrobial activity against escherichia coli, salmonella choleraesuis, proteus mirabilis, staphylococcus aureus, methicilin resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa), candida albicans, cryptococcus neoformans, cladosporium herbarum, microsporum canis, trichophyton rubrum and are inactive against pseudomonas aeruginosa, aspergillus fumigatus and penicillium notatum. the oil obtained from the aerial parts of one specimen displayed moderate toxicity against artemia salina with a lc50 value of 459.03 mg ml-1.