Biological activity of essential oil from Foeniculum vulgare

Foeniculum vulgare Mill. is a medicinal plant, used as a flavouring agent. The essential oil from F. vulgare has potential antimicrobial and insecticidal effects, and can be used in food industry in order to protect the food resources and food products against microbial and pest’s contamination. The aim of the research was to characterize the volatile components of F. vulgare essential oil by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) and Gas Chromatography (GC-FID) and to observe the antimicrobial activity by disk diffusion method and in vapour phase. Also, insecticidal activity of the vapour phase of the essential oil of F. vulgare was detected. We found that major components of the essential oil from F. vulgare were trans-anethole (73.6%), fenchone (6.0%), and limonene (5.7%). Antimicrobial activity on gram-positive, gram-negative, and yeasts was weak in liquid phase, but vapour phase showed stronger activity against B. subtilis at the concentration 250 μL.L⁻¹ (98.65% of bacterial growth inhibition). Vapour phase of essential oil was effective against insects, where 25% concentration had 80% lethality.