Abstract: The rose essential oil was extracted using simultaneous steam distillation, and the chemical composition was analyzed by GC-MS, which identified a total of 14 chemical components and the total content was 95.25%. Citronellol is the main component of the essential oil, the relative content was 90.37%. Antimicrobial activity showed that rose essential oil possessed different excent antimicrobial activity to seven kinds of bacteria except for Aspergillus niger, in which, the MIC values of rose essential oil against Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were all 0.063% v/v, the MIC values of rose essential oil against Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris and Candida albicans were all 0.125% v/v, however, the antibacterial activity of the essential oil against Pseudomonas aeruginosa was relatively weak, MIC was 0.500% v/v. The results of inhibition diameters also showed that inhibition diameters of rose essential oil against six strains were higher than 8.5 mm except for A. niger and P. aeruginosa. The bactericidal dynamic studies of rose essential oil against three-sensitive strains including S. aureus(gram-positive bacteria), E. coli(gram-negative bacteria) and C. albicans(fungi) were investigated, which provides a theoretical basis for the application of rose essential oil.

Key words: Rose essential oil, Composition, Antimicrobial activity