Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil from Cupressus sempervirens L. horizontalis Resin in Conjunction with its Biological Assessment

Essential oil from the crude oleoresin of C. sempervirens L. was hydro-distillated and analysed by GC and GC-MS. The significant fraction of the essential oil constituted both monoterpene hydrocarbons (46.03 %) and oxygenated monoterpenes (17.27 %). The major components were mainly α-pinene (35.60 %), followed by trans-pinocarveol (5.22 %), α-phellandrene-8-ol (4.56 %), β-pinene (3.06 %), D-limonene (2.83 %), borneol (2.34 %) and camphene (2.15 %). Antibacterial assays indicated the moderate level effectiveness on all tested gram positive and negative bacteria. The most sensitive bacteria were Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 95923) followed by Micrococcus luteus (NRLL B-4375). Insecticidal activity of the essential oil exposure (48 h) on Ephestia kuehniella eggs showed 20.83 % mortality at 100 μL L-1 air concentration. In the antioxidant assays, essential oil revealed a moderate level of the radical scavenging effect against DPPH and total phenolic content. Reducing power of the essential oil appeared to higher when compared to DPPH scavenging activity. Total phenolic content of the essential oil seemed to be well correlated with the assays of the DPPH and reducing power. © 2014 © 2014 Har Krishan Bhalla & Sons.