Extraction and evaluation of thyme oil and detection of its heredity effect on the fungus <i>Aspergillus amstelodami</i>

Thymus vulgaris is considered one of the herbal plants rich in active compounds that have attracted the attention of many scientists and researchers. However, the genetic safety of these compounds must be investigated, as food safety is one of the topics that has recently topped the field of scientific research.The study objectives included obtaining Thyme Essential Oil (TEO) by hydrodistillation extraction , and then analysing by Gas Chromatography technic (GC), all tests were done on the A1 (Wa1) strain of Aspergillus amstelodami . Thyme was collected from local nurseries . The mutagenic effect of four sub-lethal concentrations (0.01 -0.016 – 0.02 – 0.05 ) ml/ml of thyme oil was evaluated by using mutagenesis methods. The results showed that the highest phenolic compounds in (TEO) were Thymol and Carvacrol , with a percentage of 58.89% and 4.11%, respectively. The study also included investigating the ability of thyme oil to cause genetic effects on eukaryotic cells by testing the ability of this oil to induce genetic mutations in the conidia of fungus A. amstelodami by using the mutagenesis methods of pretreatment, plate incorporation and growth-mediated, as the study did not record the presence of any mutagenic effect for the four sub-toxic concentrations (Sub lethal) (0.01 -0.016 – 0.02 – 0.05 ) ml/ml of thyme oil, this confirms its safety genetically and can be used as a herbal food and medicinal plant.