Antioxidants 2014, 3, 81-98; doi:10.3390/antiox3010081 OPEN ACCESS antioxidants ISSN 2076-3921 www.mdpi.com/journal/antioxidants Article Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Properties of Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis L.) Essential Oil. Action of the Essential Oil on the Antioxidant Protection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Model Organism Martina Höferl 1,*, Ivanka Stoilova 2, Erich Schmidt 1, Jürgen Wanner 3, Leopold Jirovetz 1, Dora Trifonova 2, Lutsian Krastev 4 and Albert Krastanov 2 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Division of Clinical Pharmacy and Diagnostics, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; E-Mails:
[email protected] (E.S.);
[email protected] (L.J.) 2 Department Biotechnology, University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv 4002, Bulgaria; E-Mails:
[email protected] (I.S.);
[email protected] (D.T.);
[email protected] (A.K.) 3 Kurt Kitzing Co., Wallerstein 86757, Germany; E-Mail:
[email protected] 4 University Laboratory for Food Analyses, University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv 4002, Bulgaria; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +43-1-4277-55555; Fax: +43-1-4277-855555. Received: 11 December 2013; in revised form: 26 January 2014 / Accepted: 28 January 2014 / Published: 24 February 2014 Abstract: The essential oil of juniper berries (Juniperus communis L., Cupressaceae) is traditionally used for medicinal and flavoring purposes. As elucidated by gas chromatography/flame ionization detector (GC/FID) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS methods), the juniper berry oil from Bulgaria is largely comprised of monoterpene hydrocarbons such as α-pinene (51.4%), myrcene (8.3%), sabinene (5.8%), limonene (5.1%) and β-pinene (5.0%).