Interprofessional Journal of Health Sciences. Vol.15 No.2 , July - December 2017.

COMPARISON OF CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONS AND IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF ESSENTIAL OILS OBTAINED BY STREAM DISTILLATION AND WATER DISTILLATION FROM CURCUMA ANGUSTIFOLIA ROXB. ROOTS AND RHIZOMES FROM THAILAND
 

Orawan Theanphong, Withawat Mingvanish, and Thaya Jenjittikul

Abstract

The chemical compositions of essential oils stream distillated and water distillated from the fresh roots and rhizomes of C. angustifolia from Thailand were analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) technique.  The antioxidant activities of essential oils were evaluated by using six various methods including DPPH radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, ferrous ion chelating, superoxide anion radical scavenging and ferric reducing power assays. L-ascorbic acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid were used as a positive control.  The major chemical compositions of the essential oils stream distillated and water distillated from the fresh roots and rhizomes were found to be camphor (36.94 and 30.16%) and b-elemenone (64.99 and 54.50%), respectively.  The DPPH radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing power of all essential oils were found to be insignificantly different as compared with those of L-ascorbic acid.  The two rhizome essential oils exhibited significantly higher antioxidant activities against hydroxyl radicals than the two root essential oils and L-ascorbic acid.  The superoxide anion scavenging activities of the two rhizome essential oils were found to be significantly higher than the two root essential oils.  However, the superoxide anion scavenging activities of the two rhizome essential oils were insignificantly different as compared with that of L-ascorbic acid.  The rhizome essential oil obtained from steam distillation showed the strongest hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity.  However, the EC₅₀ value of the rhizome essential oil obtained from steam distillation was insignificantly different as compared with that of L-ascorbic acid.  All essential oils showed less activity against chelating ferrous ions than EDTA.

Keywords: Curcuma angustifolia, essential oil, antioxidant activity

Download Full Paper.