Abstract

ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITIONS OF BASELLA ALBA LINNAEUS AND CNIDOSCOLUS ACONITIFOLIUS (MILL.) JOHNSON

Olayombo Margaret Taiwo, Kingsley Adibe Mbachu*, Olaoluwa Olaoluwa and Satyal Prabodh

ABSTRACT

Basella alba Linnaeus and Cnidoscolus aconitifolius (Mill.) Johnson are vegetable plants that play important roles in human diet for maintenance of health and prevention of diseases. Essential oils (EOs) of fresh samples obtained by hydro-distillation method in an all-glass clevenger apparatus gave percentage yields of 0.03, 0.08 and 0.18 for Basella alba leaf, Basella alba stem and Cnidoscolus aconitifolius leaf respectively. The essential oils were characterized using gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry [GC-MS]. Leaf and stem EOs of B. alba showed ten and twelve compounds
accounting for 96.65% and 97.93% of the oils respectively. Major constituent of B. alba leaf was phytol (57.40%) while that of B. alba stem was 2-bornene (71.73%). B. alba stem was dominated by hydrocarbon monoterpenes (75.11%) while B. alba leaf was rich in oxygenated diterpenes (57.40%). B. alba stem has the highest total terpenes of 87.52% while B. alba leaf has total terpene of 60.81%. Twenty-five compounds were identified in C. aconitifolius leaf essential oil accounting for 92.26% with 2-methylhexacosane (30.80%) having the highest composition. The leaf essential oil of C. aconitifolius has total terpenes of 3.23%. Various bioactive compounds present in essential oils of these vegetable plants and varieties in their chemical structure may be responsible for their biological activities and hence justifies their nutritive and medicinal uses.

Keywords: Essential oils, Basella alba, Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, Terpenoids, Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry, Hydro-distillation.