Chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil of peumus boldus molina (Monimiaceae)

Abstract

Peumus boldus essential oil, popularly known as “boldo-do-chile”, has been widely studied, because in its composition it has monoterpenes that have biological activities such as α-pinene, β-pinene, α-terpinene, limonene, linalol and 1,8-cineole. The objective of this article is to characterize the essential oil of commercially obtained Chilean leaves, and to evaluate the larvicidal properties against Aedes aegypti larvae, Lipaphis erysimi insecticide, and acetylcholinesterase inhibition in vitro by the adapted Ellman method, in silico, by computer simulation docking. The essential oil was collected by the Clevenger hydrodistillation method, and submitted to GC-MS analysis. Arithmetic indices were calculated and substances were identified by mass spectral analysis, and comparison with the library literature. The oil yielded 1.2 % and it was possible to identify 98.44 % of the chemical composition, consisting of monoterpenes, oxygenated monoterpenes, and aromatic compounds. The major constituents were ascaridol (35.24 %), 1,8-cineol (29.27 %), α-terpinene (18.16 %), isoascaridol (3.59 %), trans-pent-1-ene-4-ol (2.89 %) and α-pinene (1.67 %). The essential oil showed larvicidal activity against A. aegypti larvae (LD50 < 50 µg.mL-1) and insecticidal activity against Lipaphis erysimi (LD50 < 60 µg.mL-1). The essential oil showed no inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which was confirmed by the in silico evaluation of major substances that did not present satisfactory molecular coupling. These data corroborated the identification of the commercial leaf constituents of Peumus boldus and their biological properties.