Antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer activities and chemical constituents of the essential oil from Mesua ferrea leaves

Abstract

Essential oil from leaves of Mesua ferrea L. was isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by means of GC and GC-MS. The yield of obtained essential oil was at 0.064% and it was appearred as yellow liquid. Thirty-five constituents were identified, constituting 81.4% of the total volatile components. The major constituents were trans-caryophyllene (30.9%), β-caryophyllene oxide (17.9%), α-humulene (6.0%), δ-cadinene (4.1%), γ-muurolene (3.5%), γ-cadinene (2.3%), β-selinene (1.9%), germacrene D (1.8%) and β-bisabolene (1.6%). Antioxidant activity of the essential oi l was evaluated by using the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radicals scavenging assay. The essential oil showed antioxidant activity with the IC50 of 31.67 mg/mL. In addition, the essential oil exhibited significant antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with the MIC values of 250 and 125 mg/mL, respectively. This oil also exhibited anticancer activities against KB, MCF-7 and NCI-H187 cell lines with the IC50 values of 24.02, 16.19, and 20.32 μg/mL, respectively, but it was non-cytotoxic to Vero cell line.