BHANG ESSENTIAL OIL POSSESSES ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY

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Nancy Vohra¹, Komal Sudan¹ and Vikas Sharma¹*

¹Natural Products Laboratory, Division of Biochemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Main Campus Chatha, Jammu –180009 J&K, India

Email: vikas.skuast@gmail.com

Received-15.05.2026, Revised-14.06.2026, Accepted-26.06.2026

Abstract: The present study evaluated the antioxidant and antibacterial activity of essential oil extracted from fresh leaves of Cannabis sativa. Antioxidant potential was determined using DPPH radical scavenging, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, while antibacterial efficacy was assessed by the agar well diffusion method against gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains. The essential oil of the plant exhibited significant antioxidant potential, as evidenced by its free radical scavenging ability and ferric ion reducing capacity and also inhibited the growth of all tested bacterial strains, with the highest antibacterial activity observed against Escherichia coli, followed by Micrococcus luteus. The findings indicate that C. sativa essential oil possesses promising antioxidant and antibacterial properties, which may be attributed to the synergistic action of its volatile phytoconstituents. The results highlight its potential for future applications as a natural bioactive ingredient in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and food preservation systems.

Keywords: Cannabis sativa, Essential oil, DPPH, FRAP, Antibacterial

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