Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops & Products journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of Lippia lasiocalycina Cham. (Verbenaceae) Wanessa Sales de Almeida a, ⁎ , Sidney Gonçalo de Lima d , Humberto Medeiros Barreto b , Leila Maria de Sousa Andrade b , Lorenna Fonseca d , Candido Athayde Sobrinho c , Ananda Rosa Beserra Santos c , Maria Christina Sanches Muratori a a Food and Nutrition Postgraduate Program, Federal University of Piauí, CampusMinistro Petrônio Portela, 64049-550, Teresina, PI, Brazil b Postgraduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Federal University of Piauí, CampusMinistro Petrônio Portela, 64049-550 Teresina, PI, Brazil c Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Av. Duque de Caxias, no. 5650 CEP: 64008-780, Teresina, PI, Brazil d Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Postgraduate Program in Chemistry, Federal University of Piauí, Campus Ministro Petrônio Portela, 64049-550 Teresina, PI, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Piperitenone oxide Candida albicans Limonene Lippia ABSTRACT The use of plant species of the genus Lippia in the treatment of diseases is an old practice, however, some species still needs studies. Thus, the present work aimed to characterize chemically and to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of Lippia lasiocalycina. The oil was extracted by hydrodistillation and the analysis of the chemical constituents done using gas chromatography coupled to the mass spectrometer. Minimum in- hibitory concentrations were determined by microdilution method against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans strains. The constituents present were identified (90.09%) and piperitenone oxide was defined as the major compound (57.55%) followed by limonene (20.69%). The essential oil of Lippia lasiocalycina presented activity against C. albicans strain, signaling for a potential application in the treatment of infections caused by this yeast. 1. Introduction The use of medicinal plants has been constant since the origin of mankind. (Boukhatem et al., 2014). Among the substances of natural origin, essential oils are very important both economically and scien- tifically, being versatile products with applicability in the most varied sectors (Bernardos et al., 2015). Essential oils are rich in bioactive substances (Medeiros et al., 2011). Its chemical composition is complex and presents a wide variety of constituents like monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and their derivatives such as aldehydes and phenols. This composition varies between plant species and seasons of the year. (Hajlaoui et al., 2010). In plants, the essential oils are directly related to the processes of pollination, dis- semination of seeds, and in defense against attacks of herbivores as well as fungi and bacteria (Costa et al., 2015; Li et al., 2013). The Verbenaceae family has approximately 36 genera of plants and 1000 plant species distributed in pantotropical regions. Brazil is the country with the greatest diversity of taxon with 16 genera and about 290 species. The plants of this family usually present in the form of herbs, shrubs, sub-shrubs and lianas (Costa et al., 2017). Among the genus belonging to this family, we can highlight Lippia, constituted by 200 species that exhibits a striking appearance and pleasant odor (Oliveira et al., 2006). The genus Lippia is widely used in folk medicine in gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory diseases. The infusion and the essential oil of various parts of plants is used as antifungal, anti- microbial, larvicide, and anesthetic agents (Linde et al., 2010). In recent years, we have seen the emergence of a problem that permeates the treatment of various diseases, the phenomenon of mi- crobial resistance. This resistance has rapidly proliferated by involving Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, such as Staphylococcus and Escherichia coli (Silveira et al., 2006) and opportunistic fungal species like Candida albicans (Casto and Lima, 2011). Although the advances in research on the chemical and pharma- cological properties of the Lippia genus, there are still species that needs clarifying studies such as Lippia lasiocalycina. To the best of our knowledge, there have been just one literature sources reporting the preliminary study of the chemical constituents of L. lasiocalycina al- cohol extract (Funari et al., 2012). No information on the biological activities or chemical composition of the essential oil is available. Therefore, the chemical characterization and determination of the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2018.09.007 Received 2 May 2018; Received in revised form 2 September 2018; Accepted 4 September 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: wanessa.salmeida@yahoo.com.br (W.S. de Almeida). Industrial Crops & Products 125 (2018) 236–240 0926-6690/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T