Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of the essential oil of aerial parts of Petasites albus from Iran: a good natural source of euparin

Abstract

The chemical composition of the essential oil of Petasites albus (known as ‘Baba Adam’ in Iran) was investigated by capillary gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for the first time. Twenty components were identified, accounting for 99.7% of the oil composition. The major compounds were euparin (73%), α-eudesmol (13.2%) and β-selinene (4.5%). Euparin, the main component of the essential oil, was isolated and characterised by spectroscopic techniques. The antioxidant activities of the essential oil and euparin were evaluated by using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay and are shown to exhibit a moderate antioxidant activity.

Keywords:

• Petasites albus
• Compositae
• euparin
• essential oil
• antioxidant activity

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr V. Mozaffarian (Research Institute of Forest and Rangelands, Tehran) for helpful assistance in collecting the plant material and for botanical identification. We are also grateful to the Research Council of Shahid Beheshti University for financial support of this work.