Phytochemical Screening of Essential Oil of Citrus sinensis by Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector

Abstract

Citrus sinensis commonly called sweet orange belongs to the family Rutaceae. Nutritionally, it is highly recommended due to its high content of micronutrients. However, the rejection of a large amount of epicarp in nature contributes to the emission of greenhouse gas and the development of leachate which contaminate surface water and groundwater. The aim of this work was to identify the essential oil components from Citrus sinensis epicarp, and then look after the biological activity of these components in order to underline the worth to reuse the Citrus sinensis epicarp as a gainful mean. The essential oil of 4,000 g of Citrus sinensis epicarp was done through the water steam distillation and 0.0287 g of essential oil was obtained; so a yield of 0.0007%. The essential oil was then submitted to gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The result revealed that the essential oil was teemed with 28 volatile compounds, including terpene compounds (50%), aldehydes (32%) and alcohols (18%) whose anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, larvicidal and antioxidant activities were underlined.