Abstract

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM- L BY GC-MS ANALYSIS

Dr. Undrala Sushen*, Paturi Manichandrika and Awanija Chouhan

Abstract

Ocimum gratissimum L, (clove basil, African basil) growing wild in India belongs to family Lamiaceae (mints).[1] Basil is possibly native to India. Ocimum gratissimum L is widely used for many pharmacological purposes in folk medicine, Ayurvedic, Homoeopathic, siddha, unani and Allopathic,[2,3] streams of medicine to treat diseases like upper respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea, headache, ophthalmic, skin diseases, pneumonia, and also as a treatment for cough, fever, and conjunctivitis (Corrêa 1932, Onajobi 1986). The essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum L exihibits considerable antibacterial and antifungal activities.[3,4] The aim of this study is to analyse and study the chemical composition of essential oil of leaf of Ocimum gratissimum L through G.C and G.C-M.S. The shade dried leaf of Ocimum gratissimum L was subjected to hydrodistillation using clevengers apparatus and analysed through GC-MS and found some different compounds.[4] The monoterpenoids dominated over sesquiterpenoids in the essential oil contents of leaf of Ocimum gratissimum L collected from surroundings of Hyderabad, Telangana by the authors. The major components among them were Eugenol (54.6%), α-Bulnesene (17.2%), thymol (5.2%), β- caryophyllene (5.0%), γ-terpenene (3.1%) and p-cymene (2.1%). This report also suggested the dominance of eugenol as the major constituent in essential oil of Ocimum gratissimum L as in earlier investigations.

Keywords: Ocimum gratissimum L, Labiate, essential oil, Eugenol, Therapeutic effects, Pharmacognosy, Alternative and complementary medicine.