Chemical composition and in-vitro anti-arthritic activity of essential oils extracted from the leaves of Lagerstroemia speciosa

Abstract

The study was designed to determine the chemical composition, and in-vitro anti-arthritic activity of the essential oils from the fresh and dry leaves of Lagerstroemia speciosa (L.speciosa). The essential oils from the fresh and dry leaves of L.speciosa were obtained by hydro-distillation technique using Clevenger’s apparatus. The chemical composition of the essential oils were analysed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS). Mass spectra were searched against mass spectrometry databases. The anti-arthritic activity was screened by protein denaturation method. The GC-MS analysis of essential oils revealed that totally 38 and 35 chemical components were recognized for fresh and dry leaves respectively that have been identified as Hentriacontane, (4,6,8-Tri-ter-butyl-9-oxa-tricyclo deca-2,4,6-trien-1-yl)-methanol, were found to be major chemical components in fresh and dry leaves respectively. In addition, the results showed the significant in vitro anti- arthritic activity of the various concentrations of 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800 μg /ml of essential oils using diclofenac as the standard. From the results, it clearly indicates that the essential oils of leaves of L. speciosa possess the higher proportions of long chain hydrocarbon which is responsible for the anti-arthritic activity.