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Abstract
Essential oil from leaf, root, and stem of Peperomia pellucida native to different countries have been isolated and characterized. Variations in the chemical composition of the essential oil from the same part of the plant were established. Meanwhile, the root essential oil of P. pellucida native to Nigeria has not been studied. This work aimed at characterizing the root essential oil of P. pellucida growing in Nigeria. To achieve this, pulverized roots (500 g) of P. pellucida were hydrodistilled and yielded 0.03±0.12 % (w/w) of essential oil. Analysis of the essential oil using GC and GC/MS showed the presence of twenty-three chemical compounds. The essential oil was predominated by sesquiterpenoids, which constituted 87.5 % of the oil. Monoterpenoids constituted 2.9 % of the oil. β-fernesene (22.2 %) was the most predominant compound in the essential oil. Other principal constituents of the oil were; β-bisabolene (14.8 %), β-bergamotene (10.7 %), 1,4- cadinadiene (7.4 %), α-copaene (6.6 %) and isosativene (6.5 %). Terpinen-4-ol (2.3 %) was the major monoterpenoid in the oil, while neryl acetate (0.6 %) existed in appreciable quantity. The predominance of β- fernesene in the oil implied that the oil was of β-farnesene chemotype.