Antioxidant activity and chemical constituents of essential oil and extracts of Rhizoma Homalomenae

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 125; no. 2; pp. 456 - 463
• Main Authors: Zeng, Ling-Bin, Zhang, Zhong-Rong, Luo, Zhu-Hua, Zhu, Ji-Xiao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.03.2011; [Amsterdam]: Elsevier Science; Elsevier
• Subjects: Antioxidant activity; Aroma and flavouring agent industries; Biological and medical sciences; chemical analysis; chemical constituents of plants; Essential oil; essential oils; Food industries; free radical scavengers; functional foods; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; GC–MS; Homalomena; Homalomena occulta; HPLC; LC–MS/MS; medicinal plants; novel foods; phenolic compounds; plant extracts; reactive oxygen species; Rhizoma Homalomenae; rhizomes; Homalomena occulta; GC–MS; Rhizoma Homalomenae; Antioxidant activity; Essential oil; LC–MS/MS; HPLC; GC-MS; LC-MS/MS; HPLC chromatography; Liquid chromatography; Extract; Antioxidant; Constituent
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.09.029

Antioxidant activity and composition of essential oil and extracts of Rhizoma Homalomenae were determined. The extracts, especially the ethyl acetate extract (QJ4 fraction) of the aqueous residue after oil distillation, had considerable antioxidant potency which was significantly associated with their total phenolic and flavonoid contents, but the essential oil showed only weak or moderate activity. GC–MS analysis of the essential oil (yield: 0.82%, v/w) resulted in the identification of 77 compounds, accounting for 96.5% of the content of the oil. The major components, epi-α-cadinol (14.8%), α-cadinol (14.8%), α-terpineol (13.8%), linalool (11.1%), terpinen-4-ol (4.92%), and δ-cadinene (4.91%) constituted 64.3% of it. LC–MS/MS and HPLC analyses showed seven phenolic compounds (protocatechuic acid, vanillic acid, syringic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and apigenin) with a great amount in the ethyl acetate extract (QJ4 fraction). The strong antioxidant properties of the plant extracts may be attributed to the presence of these phenolics.