Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate the chemical compositions and antioxidant activities of essential oils (EOs) from fresh and air-dried Albizia lebbeck. The EOs was extracted by hydro-distillation using the Clevenger apparatus and the identification and quantification of chemical constituents were done via GC/MS analysis. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method. A total of 98.58, 82.37, 46.65 and 98.69 % constituents respectively were identified in the EOs of fresh leaf, pod, stalk and twig of A. lebbeck while the air-dried leaf, pod, stalk and twig had a total of , 77.56, 83.86 and 83.66 % of constituents respectively identified. The IC50 values of the essential oils decreased as follows: BHA > air-dried-stalk > air-dried-pod > fresh-leaf > fresh-pod > fresh-stalk > fresh-twig > air-dried-twig > air-dried-leaf > α-Tocopherol. The essential oils showed considerable antioxidant activities when compared with the known antioxidants and this could be due to the synergetic effects of the identified essential oil components.