Gc-Ms Characterization, Antioxidant, Antidiabetic, And Antimicrobial Activities Of Treculia Africana Essential Oil. :- Odo Amarachi C

ABSTRACT xi Essential oils are volatile, natural, complex compounds characterized by a strong odor and are formed by aromatic plants as secondary metabolites. The bioactivity properties of essential oils are generally determined by the major compounds present in them. They have been widely used for bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal, antiparasitical, insecticidal, medicinal, and antioxidant applications. Thus, essential oils are promising natural extracts that need further evaluation lor possible application as supplement, preservatives, or antioxidants in food or pharmaceutical industries. In this study, the antioxidant, antidiabetic, and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil extracted frpm Treculia africana was evaluated through in vitro hypoglycemic activities, also the GCMS characterisation determined as well. Some of the apparatus used and the equipments are Petri dish, pipette, conical flask, incubator, spectrophotometer (Genesys 10-S, USA), Clevenger type apparatus. T africana leaves were collected from Nsirimo, Umuahia South local government, Abia state Nigeria. The samples were thoroughly washed to remove dirts and the drained parts were air dried later. The extractions of T africana essential oil were accomplished according to Fernandes et al (2013). The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation using the apparel Clevenger. The samples were triturated in a turbolizer and transferred to a 5 L volumetric balloon containing distilled water. The balloon was placed on a heating platform, and the vaporised water carried the vegetable oil through the coobation tube, promoting the separation of phases in the sifter tube (De Groot and Schmidt 2016). The collected sample was stored and cooled to 4 °C for subsequent analyses. The hydrodistillation was carried out with a Clevenger type apparatus according to the Hungarian Pharmacopiea VII. (1996). Sample quantity of 200g was used: it, was distilled with 500 ml of water for 3 hours. The resulting essential oil was dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and stored at 4°C. The result of the antimicrobial activity of 7 africana essential oil as obtained showed that the essential oil had inhibitory activity against all the test bacteria except Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The highest inhibitory' activity' obtained was against Escherichia coli (20 mm). followed by Staphylococcus aureus (19.17mm) and Salmonella typhi (18.83mm). while Enterococcus faecalis (15mm) was the least. The positive control showed higher inhibition activity as follows E faecalis (46.mm). E. coli (45.33mm), S’. aureus (43mm). P aeruginosa (41.33mm) and S. typhi (27.67mm).The percentage Alpha Glucosidase Inhibition as observed irom the result showed taht as the concentration increases the % AGI increases too. This suggests that a higher concentration of the essential oil is needed for effective glucose inhibition. GC-MS of treculia africana leaves essential oil indicated the presence ot 22 compound, l he most abundant compounds in this essential oil were (R*. R*)-5- hydroxy-4-methyl-3-heptanone. cis-vaccenic acid and n-hexadecanoic acid which had concentiations ot J'S ’o. 12.69% and 12.22% respectively. Other compounds found in appreciable quantities were ether.6-methyIhcply 1 vinyl (8.31%), oleic acid (7.27%). 1Hcy cloprop[e]azulene. decahydro-1.1.4.7-tctramethy 1-. [iaR-(laa,4p.4aP,7p,7aP,7ba)]~ (7.18%). Decanoic acid.3-methy|- (6.45%) and Cis-13-octadecanoic, methyl ester (4.41%). The results provided suggests that the essential oil extracted from treculia africana leaves showed promising medicinal activities by various in vitro assays, their potential as sources of antimicrobial" antidiabetic, antibacterials, and antioxidants. Hence, further analysis should be carried out on the btomolecules responsible for its antioxidant, antidiabetic and antimicrobial effects and also to determine their mechanism of action.