The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil of Thymus numidicus Poiret, collected from Constantine (Eastern Algerian), was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. 33 components representing 98.14% % of the essential oil were detected with thymol (23,92%), linalool (17.20%), o-cymene (11.41%), g-terpinene (10.84%), thymol methyl ether (6,73%) and carvacrol (6,02%) as the major components. The antibacterial activity of the essential oil was tested against 10 gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria by the use of the disc diffusion method. The antioxidant activity was also investigated by the use of β-carotene bleaching method.
