Chemical Composition, Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory and Anticancer Activities of Bark Essential Oil of <i>Cryptocarya amygdalina</i> from India

Abstract

Several species of Cryptocarya (Lauraceae) are traditionally used in folk medicines for the treatment of various diseases and disorders in tropical and subtropical countries. The essential oil extracted from the leaves and barks of Cryptocarya species are reported to possess antimicrobial, insecticidal, antioxidant, and antitumoral activities. However, there are no scientific reports on the biological activity of essential oil extracted from the tropical Asiatic species Cryptocarya amygdalina. The present study was undertaken to determine the chemical composition and evaluate the antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities of bark essential oil of C. amygdalina. A total of 57 constituents accounting for 99.05 % of the total essential oil content were identified by GC/MS. The bark essential oil was dominated by sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (78.71 %) with β- caryophyllene (34.77 %), α-copaene (14.26 %), bicyclogermacrene (7.65 %), and δ-cadinene (4.42 %) as the major constituents. The essential oil exhibited good radical scavenging activity against DPPH, ABTS, and Reducing power assay with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 6.97 ± 0.24, 1.28 ± 0.07, and 9.23 ± 0.34 μg/mL, respectively compared to ascorbic acid and BHT. The Pearson’s coefficient analysis showed a significant correlation between TPC, TFC, and an antioxidant assay of C. amygdalina essential oil. The essential oil also showed potent cytotoxicity against human colon (HCT-116) and ovarian (PA-1) cancer cell lines with IC50 values lesser than 50 μg/mL in both cases. Besides, this bark essential oil at 50 μg/mL concentration exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages by inhibiting nitric oxide production.

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