Chemical composition of melaleuca cajuputi powell

Abstract

Essential oil extracted from Melaleucagenus has been widely used world widefor many purposes. Most of the its has been reported as the source of phytochemical compound where mostly have anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, antioxidant, antimicrobial and insecticide properties. Thus, three objectives that have been highlighted in this study are (1) to extract essential oil (cajuput oil) from fresh leaves of Melaleucacajuputi Powell using simple steam distillation,(2) to determine the chemical components of Melaleucacajuput Powell essential oil using GCMS and (3) to compare the chemical compound and its percentage with the previous study.Results found that there were 41 chemical compounds that have been identified. The chemical compounds were monoterpenes such as α-terpinolene, α-pinene, sabinene, 4-terpineol and γ-terpinene. The highest chemical compounds found were caryophyllene (20.16%), α-terpinolene (17.0%),α-humulene (11.91%), β-elemene (7.62%) and γ-terpinene (5.62%). In previous research, 1,8-cineole chemical compound was foundhowever, in this study a different chemical compound found, it was caryophyllene, this is due to different geographic area.As a conclusion, most of the compounds found was aromatic, antibacterial andinsecticide properties.