Chemical and Biological Assessments on Eremomastax Speciosa and Lasianthera Africana Leaf Essential Oils

Abstract

Eremomastax speciosa (Kocsht.) Cufod. and Lasianthera africana P. Beauv. are medicinal plants used in Nigeria for treating ailments like urinary tract infection, constipation, syphilis and infertility. The essential oils from the two plants were isolated by hydrodistillation in an all glass Clevenger-type apparatus and characterized by GC-FID and GC-MS. A total of 45 and 46 constituents were identified in the leaf essential oil of E. speciosa and L. africana respectively. The prominent components in E. speciosa were ?-pinene (4.7%), nonanal (4.75%), bicyclogermarcene (5.41%), ?-caryophyllene (7.58%), Germacrene D (8.86%), borneol (9.88%), and phytol (51.12%) while L. africana had pinene-2-ol (3.66%), myrcene (4.26%), nonanal (7.11%), thujene (10.96%), viridiflorol (12.94%) and ?-pinene (27.33%). The toxicity result reveals that the oils of both plants were toxic to brine shrimp with LC50 of 17.59 ug/mL and 9.52 ug/mL for E. speciosa and L. africana respectively. The antimicrobial activities of the essential oils were tested using the agar well diffusion pour-plate (bacterial) and agar diffusion-surface (fungi) methods against eight microbes and both showed moderate antibacterial and antifungal activities against Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonae, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. The findings from the study support the use of these plants in traditional medical practice and increase the possibility of their use as antibacterial and antitumor agents.