Essential Oil Profile, Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity of Geranium kikianum

Abstract

This work presents the first phytochemical investigation of Geranium kikianum Kit Tan & G. Vold (Geraniaceae), a species endemic to the southern Peloponnese, Greece. The essential oil from aerial parts of the plant was isolated by hydrodistillation and its chemical composition characterized by GC-MS. A total of 26 compounds were identified, constituting 98.3% of the oil composition. Oxygenated sesquiterpenes were the main group of constituents (75.4%). The major component of the oil was the sesquiterpene ketone germacrone (45.6%). Eleven alcohols represented the most diverse chemical class in the volatile oil (36.3%), and phytol was the most abundant acyclic diterpene alcohol (11.4%). The volatile compounds and residual water remaining after hydrodistillation were screened for their radical-scavenging activity by the DPPH method. IC 50 values ranged from 0.2±0.03 mg/mL for the undiluted decoction to 69.7±0.5 mg/mL for the essential oil. The significant antioxidant activity of the residual water, comparable with that of the widespread synthetic antioxidant BHT (0.2±0.01 mg/mL), and almost tenfold higher than thymol (1.90 ± 0.04 mg/mL), correlates with a high content of total phenolic compounds (100.2±1.7 mg GAE/g), and flavonoids (11.9±1.2 mg GAE/g).