American Journal of Essential Oils and Natural Products

AUTHOR(S): Omolara O Fatunmibi, Isaac S Njoku, Olayinka T Asekun and James O Ogah

ABSTRACT:Essential oils also known as volatile oils are important components of cosmetics. Recently cosmeceuticals are becoming popular throughout the world because cosmetics have therapeutic effect. This study investigated the chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oil extracted from leaves of Cymbopogon citratus, a medicinal plant used in cosmetics. The essential oil of air-dried leaves of Cymbopogon citratus obtained through hydro distillation using Clevenger apparatus was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The oil yielded 0.8% volume per dry weight of sample. The oil was composed majorly of sesquiterpenoids and diterpenoids. The major components of the essential oil of C. citratus were Ethyl elaidate (32.46%), Palmitic acid ethyl ester (25.64%) and Linoleic acid ethyl ester (21.02%).The antimicrobial assay was carried out using the agar diffusion method while the antioxidant assay was carried out using the1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) antioxidant assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power, nitric oxide radical scavenging, total antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation assays on the oils. Results of the antioxidant activities of the essential oil of C. citratus showed that the oil has promising antioxidant potential. The oil was active against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC29213), Streptococcus mutans, Escherichia coli (ATCC25922) and Candida albicans (ATCC10231), which are all microbes responsible for skin infections in humans. This reaffirms the use of this plant in cosmetics to fight skin infections and as preservatives.

Pages: 01-05  |  536 Views  209 Downloads