EN
Introduction: Solanum sodomaeum L. has been observed to have several medicinal properties, in particular, in the treatment of several types of human skin cancer. Objective: The influence of the maturation stage of S. sodomaeum fruits on the total lipid contents, fatty acid profiles, essential oil yields and compositions, as well as the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of the essential oils, was investigated. Methods: The fatty acid and essential oil constituents were identified using gas chromatography (GC) and GC–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The antioxidant properties of essential oil and vegetal oil were assessed using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging and reducing power assays. The antibacterial ac-tivity of essential oil was tested using the disc diffusion assay for resistance in human pathogenic bacteria. Results: Mature fruits showed higher total lipid content (17%) and were characterised by polyunsaturated fatty acids (53.87%), represented mainly by linoleic acid (53.11%). Similar yields of essential oils were detected for immature (0.43%) and mature (0.45%) fruits. Tetrahydronaphthalene (41.79%) was detected as the major essential oil component at the immature stage versus dihydrocoumarin pentane (18.27%), hexadecanoic acid (17.43%) and 2-undecanone (13.20%) in mature fruits. The DPPH test showed that essential oils had better antioxidant properties; however, the vegetal oils showed better performance in the reducing power assay. Moreover, the essential oil of S. sodomaeum mature fruits was active against bacterial strains. Conclusions: S. sodomaeum fruits could be a valuable source of natural antioxidants and antibacterial agents.