Rakesh K Joshi
Accepted Abstracts: Nat Prod Chem Res
Chaerophyllum villosum Wall.ex DC. is widely distributed in E. Asia Himalayas from India to Bhutan, Nepal and China and widely grows in moist shady places, road sides or open grassy places at elevations of 2100-3500 m. In high altitude tribes of Uttarakhand Himalaya (India) it is commonly known and sold in the name of ?Ganjari? widely used by people in food, spice and also as medicine. The essential oils composition of leaves and rhizomes of Chaerophyllum villosum Wall.ex DC. (family: Apiaceae) were analyzed and compared using capillary GC and GC-MS. The leaf essential oil of C. villosum was dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons (91.34%) represented by γ-terpinene (74.93%) as single major constituent followed by p-cymene (10.00%), terpinolene (2.93%) and β-pinene (2.54%). On the contrary, the rhizome oil showed the dominant presence of phenolic compounds (70.23%) with carvacrol methyl ether (31.12%), thymol methyl ether (18.60%) and myristicin (19.06%) as major marker constituents. Other constituents identified in significant amount in rhizome essential oil of C. villosum were γ-terpinene (11.69%), p-cymene (3.47%) and bornyl acetate (1.18%). The essential oil was evaluated for its antimicrobial activity using a micro-dilution assay resulting in the inhibition of a number of common human pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and Bacillus subtilis. The antifungal activity of the oils was performed against Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. Furthermore, the antioxidant capacity of the essential oil was examined using an in vitro radical scavenging activity test.
