Chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil from Rubus pungens var. oldhamii

Abstract

This paper presents a study on chemical composition, antimicrobial, antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory properties of the essential oil from leaves of Rubus pungens var. oldhamii (REO). The major component of the REO is sesquiterpenes (36.04%), which consists of 1,5-Cyclooctadiene,3-(1-me thylallyl)-(8CI)(17.66%), 5,6-Diethenyl-1-methylcyclohexene (12%), (+) – γ-Elemene (10.48%) and β-Caryophyllene (8.39%).The REO is shown to be moderately active against Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium glaucum, and has weak antioxidant activity in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Furthermore, tyrosinase inhibition was investigated against monophenolase (L-tyrosine). IC₅₀ values of REO and arbutin were found 0.923 and 0.657 mg/mL, respectively. The REO exerted potential antityrosinase activity. Our test results indicated that the REO was rich in sesquiterpenes, and also exhibited good antityrosinase activity, and moderate antimicrobial activity against pathogenic micro-organisms. The REO can be used as a natural source of promising antimicrobial and tyrosinase inhibiting agent.

Keywords:

• Rubus pungens var. oldhamii
• essential oil
• chemical composition
• biological activities

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from the Zhejiang Province Nonprofit Technology Research Projects (2014C32111).