Volatile Composition and Biological Activity of Jordanian Commercial Samples of R. coriaria L. Fruits

The present paper reports the GC-HS-SPME analysis of volatile emission and GC-MS analysis of chemical composition of essential oil of R. coriaria fruits of eight different samples of R. coriaria L. fruits (“sumac” folk name), collected from Jordanian agricultural field and the local market. The analyses show an important variability among the Sumac samples probably due to the origin, cultivation, harvesting period, drying, and conservation of the plant material. The main class of component present in all samples was monoterpenes (43.1 to 72.9%), except for one sample which evidenced a high percentage of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (38.5%). The oxygenated monoterpenes provided a contribution to total class of monoterpenes ranging from 10.1 to 24.3%. A few samples were rich in monoterpene hydrocarbons. Regarding the single components present in all the volatile emissions, β-caryophyllene was the main compound in most of the analyzed samples, varying from 34.6% to 7.9%. Only two samples were characterized by α-pinene as the main constituent (42.2 and 40.8% respectively). Essential oils were collected using hydro-distillation method. Furfural was the main constituent in almost all the analyzed EOs (4.9 to 48.1%), except in one of them, where β-caryophyllene was the most abundant one. β-caryophyllene ranged from 1.2 to 10.6%. Oxygenated monoterpenes like carvone and carvacrol ranged from 3.2–9.1% and 1.0–7.7% respectively. Cembrene was present in good amount in EO samples EO-2 to EO-8. The antioxidant capacities of the fruit essential oils from R. coriaria were assessed using spectrophotometry to measure free radical scavenger 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and inhibition of β-carotene bleaching (BCB). The essential oils from the fruits of the different samples of R. coriaria exhibited the MIC value ranging from 32.8 to 131.25 µg/mL against S. aureus ATCC 6538 and 131.25 to 262.5 µg/mL against E. coli ATCC 8739. The MIC values of ciprofloxacin were 0.59 and 2.34 µg/mL against S. aureus ATCC 6538 and E. coli ATCC 8739, respectively.