Phytochemical Content and Biological Activities of Essential Oils and Aqueous Methanol Extract of Satureja baborensis (Batt.) Briq.

Essential oils obtained from the hydrodistillation of fresh aerial (FA) and dried aerial parts (DA) of Satureja baborensis (Batt.) Briq. (Lamiaceae) were analyzed using GC and GC/MS, revealing the presence of 34 components for FA and 29 components for DA. The main constituents of the essential oils were limonene (FA 1.21%, DA4.73%), piperitenone oxide (FA7.84%, DA18.15%), menthone (FA9.29%, DA1.18%), pulegone (FA53.88%, DA25.85%), and cis-piperitone oxide (FA2.96%, DA15.05%). FAand DAessential oils exhibited considerable antibacterial activity against nine Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria by the use of the disk diffusion method. In addition, the aqueous methanol extract of Satureja baborensis (MESB) showed high polyphenol (76.33 ± 7.60 mg gallic acid equivalents) and flavonoid contents (42.18 ± 1.03 mg equiv. QUE/g) and a higher antioxidant activity in ferric-reducing power, silver nanoparticle, and phenanthroline assays (A_0.5 16.90 ± 1.62, 12.18 ± 1.61 and 5.59 ± 0.79 μg/mL respectively) than in DPPH, CUPRAC, and ABTS assays. Significant butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activity was displayed by the aqueous MESB (IC₅₀ 76.58 ± 7.88 μg/mL).