Chemical Constituents and Cytotoxic Activities of Essential Oils from the Flowers, Leaves and Stems of Zingiber striolatum Diels

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate chemical composition and cytotoxic activities of essential oils from Zingiber striolatum Diels flowers, leaves and stems. 73, 68 and 66 compounds representing 97.0%, 94.8% and 93.7% of flowers, leaves and stems essential oils were identified using GC-FID and GC-MS, respectively. The main constituents of the flowers oil were β-phellandrene (28.5%), α-humulene (14.7%), β-pinene (8.2%), β-elemene (5.5%), humulene oxide II (3.5%), cryptone (3.3%) and tricosane (3.2%). The predominant components in the leaves oil were hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (24.7%), α-humulene (12.2%), phytol (11.9%), humulene oxide II (6.3%), β-pinene (4.3%), sandaracopimaradiene (3.1%) and β-elemene (3.0%). The stems oil contained mainly α-humulene (15.6%), humulene oxide II (7.9%), hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (7.4%), phytol (7.2%), humulene oxide I (4.1%), β-elemene (3.8%) and 4-terpineol (3.2%). The cytotoxic activity against human leukemic (K562), prostatic carcinoma (PC-3) and lung cancer (A549) cell lines of essential oils was assessed using MTT assay. The essential oils of flowers, leaves and stems exhibited significant cytotoxicity against K562 (IC50: 12.94–37.89 μg/mL), PC-3 (IC50: 69.06–82.56 μg/mL) and A549 (IC50: 45.73–66.12 μg/mL) cell lines. This is the first report on the chemical constituents and cytotoxic activities of Z. striolatum flowers, leaves and stems essential oils.