The essential oils from the leaves of two geographically distinct C. camphora, roots of C. tamala and fruits of C. glaucescens growing wild in Nepal were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-MS.  The major components in C. camphora oil were camphor (36.5%) and camphene (11.7%). C. tamala oil was also dominated by camphor (35.0%) followed by smaller amounts of linalool (10.9%) and p-cymene (8.4%).  The fruit essential oil of C. glaucescens was rich in methyl (E)-cinnamate (40.5%) and 1,8-cineole (24.8%).  The three Cinnamomum essential oils were screened for multiple biological activities including phytotoxicity (Lactuca sativa and Lolium perenne), cytotoxicity (MCF-7), brine shrimp (Artemia salina) lethality, as well as pesticidal activity including mosquito (Culex pipiens) larvicidal, termiticidal (Reticulitermes virginicus), nematocidal (Caenorhabditis elegans), and insecticidal activity against fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), butterfly (Pieris rapae) larvae, and fire ant (Solenopsis invicta � richteri). In addition to testing essential oils, subsequent tests of individual major components of the three oils were also performed. The results show a wide variety of activity with C. tamala active against mosquito larvae, C. glaucescens exhibiting significant termiticidal, anti-caterpillar, and nematicidal activity, and C. camphora most active in cytotoxicity and brine shrimp lethality screens.

Bioactivities and chemical compositions of three cinnamomum essential oils from Nepal: C. camphora, C. tamala, and C. glaucescens

245th National Meeting (2013)

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