Chemical Content, and Toxic Effects of Essential Oil of Origanum vulgare L. ssp vulgare Against to Zea mays Seedlings

This study was designed to examine essential oil based changes at the genetic and physiological level on Zea Mays seeds. To this end EO obtained from Origanum vulgare by hydrodistilation were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The most abundant contents were observed as caryophyllene oxide (34.44 %), beta-caryophyllene (20.40 %) and alpha-cadinol (7.02 %). Total of the volatiles were applied to Zea mays' seeds at four different (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 mu l/mL) concentrations. Comparing with the control germination, some DNA alterations were observed in random amplified polymorphic DNA profiles of germinated EO treated seeds. The alterations affected the genomic template stability. On the other hand, data observed from protein profiles by using SDS-Page showed some differentiation between band profiles of EO treated samples and control group. The results suggest that EO not only affect the DNA, but also its products (proteins). As a conclusion, the possible biological activities of EO of Origanum vulgare L. ssp vulgare are related to their genotoxic activity.