Research Article
Ololade ZS, Olawore NO, Kol
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the recovered secondary metabolites of post-hydrodistilled Callitris columellaris leaf and their in vitro free radical scavenging potentials. Secondary metabolites in essential oil form were obtained from the leaf of C. columellaris and analysed by GC and GC-MS, where 77 phytocompounds were identified representing 99.30% of the oil extract, out of which m-cymene (8.40%), γ-4-dimethylbenzenebutanal (7.30%), 4β-17-(acetyloxy)-kauran-18-al (7.0%), cis-8-isopropylbicyclo[4.3.0]non-3-ene (4.30%), 7-methoxymethyl- 2,7-dimethylcyclohepta-1,3,5-triene (3.40%) and DL-E-nuciferol (3.40%) were detected as the principal components. The extract exhibited high antioxidant activity in DPPH free radical scavenging assay (IC50: 70μgml-1). The present study clearly demonstrated that the post-hydrodistilled retentate of C. columellaris still possess some useful phytocompounds that have antioxidant properties and may act as potential natural antioxidant for pharmacological systems susceptible to free radical-mediated reactions.