Volatile Constituents and Toxicity Profile of the Leaves, Stem Bark and Root Bark Essential Oils of Holarrhena Floribunda and Crescentia Cujete

Essential oils are highly concentrated substances extracted from flowers, leaves, stems, roots, seeds, barks, resins, or fruit rinds. The increased interest in creating a compendium of plant essential oils for the purpose of discovering drugs from natural source led to the characterization of the leaves, stem bark and root bark of Holarrhena floribunda and Crescentia cujete. The essential oils from the plants parts were extracted by means of hydrodistillation using an all glass Clevenger apparatus while the chemical constituents were determined by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy technique. The toxicity of the essential oils was tested using Brine shrimps (Artemia salina). The GC-MS results identified 5, 8, and 7 components in H. floribunda (leaves, stem bark and stem bark respectively) while leaves, stem bark and root bark of C. cujete had 15, 11 and 10 constituents respectively. The compounds found in high quantity in the essential oils of H. floribunda are friedelan-3-one (22.85%), sesquirosefuran (31.93%), octadec-9-enoic acid (46.28%), and longifolene (59.77%) while the major components in the oils of C. cujete are cyclotetradecane (13.75%), diisooctylphthalate (33.96%), and phytol (46.33%). The LC50 value ranged from 10.85 to 288.76 (µg/mL) which was a pre-test for toxicity potential. The essential oils of C. cujete stem bark, C. cujete root bark and H. floribunda root bark were the most toxic with LC50 10.85, 16.54 and 36.33 µg/mL respectively. The level of toxicity of these essential oils is an indication of the pharmacological properties the plants may possess.