Investigation of Curry Leaf Essential Oils of Murraya koenigii Spreng. Growing in the South of Vietnam

The chemical composition of the curry leaf essential oils obtained from curry trees growing in the South of Vietnam was studied for the first time. Two methods of extraction were used, conventional hydrodistillation (CHD) and microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD), thus leading consequently to the isolation of two oils of moderately different composition. The oils were obtained in the yields of 0.83 % and 0.39 % by CHD (480 minutes) and MAHD (50 minutes), respectively. The main chemical compositions of the oils were completely dominated by hydrocarbons. The extracted oils were determined by GC/FID and GC/MSD to contain 76 and 62 identifiable components for the CHD and the MAHD methods, respectively. The oil extracted by MAHD displayed a higher anti-microbial activity than the oil extracted by means of CHD.