Chemical composition of essential oil and in vitro antioxidant activities of the essential oil and methanol extracts of Eucalyptus loxophleba

This study was designed to examine the chemical composition of the essential oil and the antioxidant activity of the essential oil and methanol extracts of Eucalyptus loxophleba Benth. subsp. The chemical composition of the essential oil of the leaves of E. loxophleba was analysed by GC and GC/MS. The main constituents of the oil were found to be 1,8-cineole (39.4%), methyl amyl acetate (19.8%) and aromadendrene (10%). Antioxidant activities of the samples were determined by two different test systems namely DPPH and beta-carotene/linoleic acid. In the DPPH system, the highest radical-scavenging activity was shown by the polar subfraction of the methanol extract (15.2 +/- 1.7 mu gmL(-1)). Also, in the second case, the inhibition capacity (%) of the polar subfraction (94.1 +/- 1.3) was found to be stronger. In addition, the amounts of total phenol components in the polar subfraction (273.0 +/- 2.6 mu gmg(-1)) and nonpolar subfraction (146.3 +/- 2.5 mu gmg(-1)) were determined.