Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oil and extracts of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L.) and chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.)

► Antioxidants are the most effective compounds against free radicals. ► Detection of natural antioxidant sources for food use would be beneficial for healthy life. ► Antioxidant capacity of chamomile and fennel extract was screened using DPPH assay. ► Chamomile recorded high levels of total phenolic contents, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Essential oil and extracts of two Egyptian plants, fennel and chamomile were examined for their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The essential oil for fennel seeds and chamomile flowers were found to be 1.95 and 0.73%, respectively. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of the essential oils revealed the presence of 15 major monoterpenoids in all two plant essential oil but their percentages in each plant were greatly different. Trans -anethole, estragole, fenchone and limonene were highly abundant in all of the examined oils. Antioxidant activities of the extracts were evaluated using the DPPH radical scavenging. The statistical analysis showed that the highest antiradical power (ARP) was noticed for chamomile extracted by methanol, where is fennel extracted be hexane gave the least value which was 243. Antimicrobial activities of each plant extracts and essential oil were measured. The lowest MIC values of essential oils for Aspergillus flavus , Candida albicans , Bacillus cereus , and Staphylococcus aureus was obtained. The essential oils exhibit different degrees of antimicrobial activities depending on the doses applied. The results of the present investigation demonstrated significant variations in the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of fennel and chamomile essential oil and extracts.