Composition and Radical Scavenging Activity of Essential Oil from Xylopia aethiopica: A New Chemotype Grown in Nigeria

Despite its use in traditional medicines, studies on the radical scavenging activity of the essential oils from Xylopia aethopica from Nigeria have not been widely reported in literature. Thus, in this work, fresh fruits of Xylopia aethopica were air dried, ground and extracted through hydro-distillation using Clevenger-type distillation apparatus. The essential oil was analyzed using Gas Chromatographic/Flame Ionization Detection (GC/FID) Technique and confirmed by gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) analysis. The radical scavenging activity of the essential oil was evaluated in comparison with butylated hydroxylanisole (BHA) through 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay. A total of Forty-five compounds were detected through the GC/FID and GC/MS analyses of the essential oil of Xylopia aethopica. The major constituents of the essential oil were β-pinene (55.15%), α-thujene (9.23%) and α-eudesmol (8.61%) and α-pinene (6.77%). Other notable constituents were 1, 8-cineole (6.13%), ethyl cinnamate (5.83%) and elemol (5.17%). The methanolic solution of the essential oil showed concentration-dependent scavenging activity on 1,1-Diphenyl-2-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical. The results of the Scavenging effect of the Xylopia aethopica essential oil compared well with the activity of the commercial radical scavenging agent, Butylated hydroxylanisole (BHA) and this suggests possible uses of the essential oil as sources of natural antioxidants. Data were analyzed using R statistical software.