Evaluation of chemical composition in essential oils from Schefflera octophylla L. Hai Duong province in Vietnam

Abstract

Schefflera octophylla L is a traditional medicine that exhibits a wide range of biological activities. However, the phytochemical content of S. octophylla L.essential oil is limitedly known. In the present study, S. octophylla L. grown in Hai Duong province (Vietnam) was extracted for essential oil by using hydrodistillation method. The resulted S. octophylla essential oil was further analyzed for its composition of volatile components by GC-MS analysis. Results have shown that the extraction process yielded 0.162 wt% of S. octophylla essential oil. In addition, the content of volatile substances in the obtained essential oil accounted for 97.07%, with main constituents known to have significant medicinal value such as myrcene (9.0%), elemene (6.67%), caryophylene (= caryophylene) (24.91%),selinene (6.30%) and selinene (7.29%). These findings provide a helpful insight to S. octophylla L phytochemical profiles for further studies on the plant applications in the fields of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture and therapeutic uses.