Noumi venant donald;
- UN
- UN
In recent years, the interest for plant-derived bioactive products has increased owing to their numerous health. Plants are rich sources of phytochemicals including terpenes having a wide variety of biological activities, such as antioxidant activities.
Dried leaves of Eucalyptus camaldulensis were finely grinded and fractionated by sieving into four granulometric classes (355 µm). The obtained powder fractions were used for essential oil (EO) extraction by hydrodistillation and their phytochemical profile (GC/MS) and in vitro antioxidant activities (DPPH, ABTS and Total reducing poser) were evaluated. Mother powder (unsieved powder) was used for comparison. Particle size exerted a significant influence (p < 0.05) on the phytochemical composition and in vitro antioxidant properties of the EOs. Comparatively, the unsieved powder had the highest contents of α -pinene (55.6%), camphene (3.4%) and limonene (3.7%), while 1,8-cineole (26.6% and 22.4%), exo-fenchol (5.6% and 3.5%), α -campholenol (4.2% and 3.4%), L-trans-pinocarveol (5.5% and 2.7%), L-borneol (12.6% and 6.8%) and α -terpineol (16.4% and 7.6%) are the main compounds of EOs from the < 100 µm and 100 – 200 µm fractions, respectively. The antioxidant activities of the EOs revealed higher radical-scavenging activities DPPH (90.62% and 70.46%) and ABTS (89.59% and 73.31%) for finer fractions (<100 µm and 100 – 200 µm, respectively). The best reducing power (36.15% and 34.27%) were also found in these finer powder fractions which improved by more than 2 times the value of unsieved powder (reducing power of 17.01%). These results suggest that grinding followed by sieve fractionation concentrates the majority of antioxidant phytochemicals in the EOs of the finer powder fractions of E. camaldulensis leaves. Finer powders could be used as functional ingredients in food formulations for the management of chronic diseases.
Keywords: Eucalyptus camaldulensis , Powder Fraction, Essential Oil, Chemical Composition, Antioxidant Activity
