9.

Chemical Composition, Antioxidant, and Cytotoxic Properties of the Essential Oil from the Leaves of Murraya alata Drake

Hai - Ning Lv, Ke - Wu Zeng, Xiao - Yu Guo, Jing - Quan Yuan, Peng - Fei Tu and Yong Jiang

State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China

Guangxi Medicinal Plant Garden, Nanning 530023, China

Abstract: The essential oil from the leaves of Murraya alata Drake was extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-MS. A total of 70 components were identified, accounting for 93.7% of the oil composition. The major compound is a -cadinol (18.9%), followed by a -muurolol (10.0%), trans -prenyl limonene (7.7%), germacra-4(15),5,10(14)-trien-1- a -ol (6.0%) , and cedryl acetate (5.4%). M. alata oil was characterized by a high content of sesquiterpenes (91.2%), with cadinene-type being the most representative compounds . The structural diversity of sesquiterpenes as well as their chemotaxonomic significance was discussed. In addition, M. alata oil showed moderate in vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic effects.

Keywords: Murraya alata ; essential oil; GC-MS; antioxidant activity; cytotoxic activity. © 2015 ACG Publications. All rights reserved.