Macedonian pharmaceutical bulletin, 68 (Suppl 2) 51 - 52 (2022) Online ISSN 1857 - 8969 DOI: 10.33320/maced.pharm.bull.2022.68.04.020 Short communication *sanja.kostadinovik@ugd.edu.mk S1 PP 11 Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial effect of Lavandula essential oil used as a natural antioxidant for cold- pressed oils Sanja Kostadinović Veličkovska *1 , Dejan Pljevljakušic 2 , Emilija Arsov 1 , Saša Mitrev 1 , Ljupčo Mihajlov 1 , Daniela Dimovska 1 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Goce Delčev University, Krste Misirkov bb, 2000 Štip, Republic of North Macedonia 2 Institute for Medicinal Plants Research „Dr. Josif Pančić“, Tadeuša Košćuška 1, 11000 Belgrade, Republic of Serbia Introduction Pure lavender infused with sunflower oil become a very popular new product for treating skin and hair. The base of this product is usually sunflower oil, extremely rich in Vitamin E, known to be a very efficient skin antioxidant (Badr et al., 2021). Several lavender essential oils are largely used in aromatherapy as antioxidant, antimicrobial, carminative, spasmolytic, sedative, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic properties, antioxidant activity tonic, and anti-depressive agents. The cold-pressed sunflower or flaxseed oils are excellent mediums for Lavandula essential oils due to the high level of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids and Vitamin-E-active compounds such as tocopherols and tocotrienols. This mixture is a powerful antioxidant agent for treating dry skin and hair and can be used for many cosmetic purposes (Sharafabad et al., 2022). Materials and methods This scientific work is a short review paper in which we investigated the chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicorobial activity of Lavandula essential oils. The percentage of monoterpenes, sesquitepenes, esters, alcohols, aldehydes and other volatile compounds was analyzed using GC technique coupled with GCMS. The Trolox equivalent antioxidant assay (TEAC) and potential against DPPH radical employed in many studies give a measure of the antioxidant activity. “In vitro” antibacterial properties against Gram-positive bacterial strains such Staphylococcus aureus, and Gram-negative bacterial strains such Escherichia coli, and antifungal activity against Candida albicans is usually performing using a disk-diffusion method in Petri dishes. Results and discussion The most common compounds of Lavandula varieties are linalool, linalyl acetate, 1,8-cineol, trans-β- ocimene, camphor and terpinene-4-ol (Rai et al., 2020). Furthermore, the species L. stoechas presented a chemical composition quite different from other species like L. dentata, L. angustifolia, L. latifolia and L. hybrida (Kucukyumuk et al., 2015). The linalool, linalyl acetate, camphor, α-pinene, camphene, γ-terpinene, and 1,8 cineol were the most abundant compounds. However, the chemical composition of lavender essential oils is significantly influenced by abiotic (climatic, soil, topographic, agronomic and post-harvest techniques) and biotic factors (plant age, stage of development, genetic characteristics) (De Elguea-Culebras et al., 2017). The level of some esters and monoterpenes in lavender oils displayed a remarkable antioxidant potential followed in the descending order by α-terpinyl acetate, camphene, and α-terpinyl acetate (Badr et al., 2022). Relatively low amounts of phenolic compounds are explained due to the fact that those natural antioxidants are concentrated mainly in the plant residue material (El Hassouni et al., 2019). Although most of the authors compared the antioxidant potential of lavender essential oils by DPPH and ABTS radicals, the work of Lilia et al.