Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activities of the Essential Oil From the Leaves of Pterocephalus hookeri

Abstract

Detailed chemical constituents of essential oil from the Pterocephalus hookeri leaves and its antimicrobial activities were investigated in this study. The essential oil, obtained by hydrodistillation, was characterized by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. Among the 90 identified compounds, hexadecanoic acid (21.27%), phytol (8.03%), furfural (7.08%), oleic acid (5.25%), and phytone (4.56%) were the major components. In the antimicrobial assay, the essential oil showed strong inhibitory activities against Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, and Staphylococcus aureus with minimum inhibitory concentration values of 31.3, 62.5, and 125 µg/mL, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first report concerning chemical composition and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil from Pterocephalus hookeri.