Simultaneous Hydrodistillation of Healthy Cedrus atlantica Manetti and Infected by Trametes pini and Ungulina officinalis: Effect on Antibacterial Activity Utilizing a Mixture-Design Method

The Atlas cedar belongs to the Pinaceae family of treesand canbe found in a crucial resinous mountain forest in Morocco that spans133,000 hectares. This endemic species is valued for its wood qualityand essential oil (EO), which has various biological activities. However,pathogenic fungi, particularly Trametes pini and Ungulina officinalis, frequentlyattack Atlas cedarwood, causing significant damage and loss of value.This study aims to extract EO from both healthy and infected Atlascedarwood to promote its valorization and to assess the antibacterialproperties of the resulting EOs. The EOs from healthy and sick cedarwood,as well as a combination of these woods, were extracted using hydrodistillationand simultaneous hydrodistillation. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometrywere used to examine the chemical compositions of the EOs. In addition,the disk diffusion method and a measurement of the minimum inhibitoryconcentration were used to assess the EOs' antibacterial activityagainst two bacterial strains, namely, Escherichiacoli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The results show that the extraction yields of healthy cedarwood,cedarwood infected by Trametes pini, and cedarwood infected by U. officinalis were 1.43 & PLUSMN; 0.03, 0.56 & PLUSMN; 0.03, and 0.26 & PLUSMN; 0.06%,respectively, Moreover, the antibacterial results showed that neitherthe healthy nor the diseased cedar oil had any impact on either strain.However, the EOs from some binary mixtures (75:25, 50:50, and 25:75%)of cedarwood infected by Trametes pini and cedarwood infected by U.ngulina officinalis and the mixture of healthy cedarwood and cedarwood infected by thetwo fungi inhibited the growth of S. aureus with different MIC values. The findings of this research could leadto the development of new products with antibacterial properties,such as natural disinfectants, and reduce the amount of waste generatedby the cedar industry.