Essential oil of Piper Betle and derivatives of eugenol

Abstract

The essential oil of Piper betle and the chemistry of its major compound have been investigated. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation technique while the chemical compositions of the oil were determined by gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Kovats Indices. The yield of essential oil obtained from this plant was 0.64%. The compounds identified in the P. betle oil were six phenylpropanoids (40.38 %), three monoterpenes (0.15 %), and twenty one sesquiterpenes (38.95 %). Phenylpropanoids were the most dominant group in the oil of P. betle leaf with eugenol (32.64 %) being the main component. Eugenol was then seperated from the oil by column chromatography and analyzed spectroscopically. The synthetic eugenol was subjected to methylation and acetylation to form methyl eugenol and eugenol acetate, respectively. The oil, eugenol and its derivatives were screened for antibacterial and antioxidant activities. For the antibacterial activity, only essential oil showed positive result at concentration of 900 ppm. While for the antioxidant activity, essential oil at IC50 = 16.83 µg/mL and eugenol at IC50 = 3.03 µg/mL, proved that both samples showed positive results on antioxidant assay.