Résumé:
The synthetic food conservatives are limited in several countries, because of their undesirable
effects on health. Moreover, the current trend of the consumers seeks a more natural food increased
during these last decades. Several research tasks have concentrated on the essential oils extracted
from the aromatic plants. The various results published have indicated that they are endowed with
several biological properties. In this context, we tried to evaluate antioxidant, antibacterial and
antifungal activities of essential oil extracted from Foeniculum vulgare Mill. seeds.
The extraction was carried out by water distillation Clevenger’s type apparatus, the yield was
0.79±0.02%. The evaluation of the antiradical activity of the fennel seeds essential oil was
evaluated by the reduction of the DPPH• method. The EC50 (efficiencies’ concentration) obtained is
752.65±32.5µg.ml-1. The fennel seeds essential oil shows also a very interesting antioxidant activity
(81.74± 3.92%) by the of β-Carotene bleaching method.
Diffusion Method has demonstrated that the fennel seeds essential oil has a feeble
antibacterial activity. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum bactericidal
concentration (MBC) are estimated by agar dilution method, the MIC obtained are included
between 20 000 and 45 000 µg.ml-1, the MBC proved also raised.
The antifungal activities of the essential oil against fungi were undertaken using inverted
petriplate. The results obtained indicate that the fennel seeds essential oil has strong activity.
Minimum fongistatic concentrations (MFCS), and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFCC) were
estimated by broth dilution method, the MFCS obtained are included between 625 and 1250µg.ml-1,
the MFCC obtained is 1250µg.ml-1. The antifungal index (AI50) were estimated, the Alternaria was
most sensitive where his AI50 was 26.22±0,693µg.ml-1.
With the rise of this study, we can conclude that the fennel seeds essential oil could be
regarded as a very promising preservative for food industry able to prevent the oxidation of food
and to reduce growth in of deterioration of food and producing mycotoxins mycelial.
