Volatile Constituents in Oil from Different Plant Parts of Methyl Eugenol-RichOcimum tenuiflorumL.f. (syn.O. sanctumL.) Grown in South India

Abstract

Ocimum tenuifl orum L.f. (syn. O. sanctum L.) (Lamiaceae) is an indigenous ayurvedic medicinal plant of India and is popularly known as holy basil/sacred basil. Oils obtained by hydrodistillation from leaves, stems, infl orescence and whole herb were analyzed by GC and GC/MS and retention indices. Methyl eugenol was the major constituent of all the oils (72.5%, 75.3%, 83.7% and 65.2% in oils from whole herb, leaf, stem and infl orescence, respectively). β-Caryophyllene was the second most dominant constituent and the respective concentration in each oil (5.5%, 6.4%, 2.7% and 12.0%).

Morphological variability in holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum L.) from India

“…Two main morphotypes Rama and Shyama tulsi were found to be distinct in oil quality (Kothari et al 2005). Two major morphotypes Rama and Shyama types in O. tenuiflorum and their intermediate types were found scattered in different clusters.…”

“…Eugenol is the active constituent largely present in leaves that contributes to therapeutic potential as painkiller and reduces blood glucose levels in type-2 diabetics (Pushpangadan and Bradu 1995;Kothari et al 2005;Mondello et al 2002;Prakash and Gupta 2005). The holy basil has remained largely as a house hold species in India.…”

“…The variants of O. tenuiflorum with different coloured flowers with combinations of purple or green calyces and purple or white corolla are available. Two main morphotypes cultivated in India and adjoining regions are light green-leaved (Rama tulsi) and purple/dark green-leaved (Shyama tulsi) (Kothari et al 2005). Morphologically indistinguishable types represented from diverse ecological regions had variable chemical constituents (Ali and Ali 2012).…”

Chemical composition of the essential oil of Ocimum tenuiflorum L. (Krishna Tulsi) from North West Karnataka, India

“…The compound methyl eugenol has been reported in varying amounts along with diverse chemotypes from different regions (Bhattacharya et al, 1996;Kothari et al, 2005;Joshi, 2013a;Awasthi & Dixit, 2007;Gbolade & Lockwood, 2008). It is interesting to note that chemotypes containing other compounds have also been reported (Khan et al, 2010;Kicel et al, 2005;Machado et al, 1999;Brophy et al, 1993;Pino et al, 1998).…”

“…Anticancer (Kathiresan, Guanasekan, Rammurthy, & Govidswami, 1999), radioprotective, anticarcinogenic (Devi, 2001), antioxidant (Devi, 2001;Joshi, 2013a), chemopreventive (Prashar, Kumar, Banerjee, & Rao, 1994;Karthikeyan, Ravichadran, & Govindasamy, 1999), immunotherapeutic (Mukherjee, Das, & Ram, 2005), antimicrobial (Singh, Malhotra, & Majumdar, 2005;Joshi, 2013a), anti-inflammatory (Godhwani, Godhwani, & Vyas, 1987;Singh & Majumdar, 1997), analgesic, antipyretic (Godhwani et al, 1987), antispermatogenic (Seth, Johri, & Sundaram, 1981) and antistress (Bhargava & Singh, 1981) activities of this plant have also been reported. The essential oils of O. tenuiflorum have been reported to possess methyl eugenol (Joshi, 2013a), methyl eugenol, β-caryophyllene (Bhattacharya, Kaul, & Rajeswara Rao, 1996;Kothari, Bhattacharya, Ramesh, Garg, & Khanuja, 2005), methyl eugenol, (E)-caryophyllene, eugenol and, β-elemene (Awasthi & Dixit, 2007), methyl chavicol, and linalool (Khan et al, 2010) from India; β-bisabolene, 1,8-cineole and methyl chavicol (Kicel, Kurowska, & Kalemba, 2005) from Poland; methyl eugenol and isocaryophyllene (Gbolade & Lockwood, 2008) from Nigeria; eugenol, β-caryophyllene and caryophyllene oxide (Machado, Silva, Matos, Craveiro, & Alencar, 1999) from Northeastern Brazil; eugenol, β-elemene and β-caryophyllene (Pino, Rosado, Rodriguez, & Garcia, 1998) from Cuba; methyl chavicol, camphor and β-caryophyllene (Brophy, Goldsack, & Clarkson, 1993) from Australia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the essential oil composition of O. tenuiflorum (Krishna Tulsi) growing in North West Karnataka, India, using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses.…”