Chemical profile, antibacterial, antioxidant and insecticidal activities of essential oils of Nigerian-grown Ananas comosus (L) Merr

Abstract

Ananas comosus is a popular fruit used as a medicine in several native cultures for the treatment of typhoid fever, strangury, helminthiasis, jaundice and for boosting male fertility. Essential oils were extracted from the fruit, peel and shoot of Nigerian-grown A. comosus using hydrodistillation method and analyzed using GC-FID and GC-MS techniques. Nine, forty-four and thirty-five constituents accounting for 88.76, 66.08 and 91.51% were identified in the fruits, peel, and shoot oils respectively. The oils had a high percentage of non-terpenes which were made up of esters, fatty acids, alcohols and aldehydes. Major constituents of the fruit, peel and shoot oils were p-xylene (62.43 %), tetradecanoic acid (8.63 %) and p-xylene (29.89 %), respectively. The essential oils were evaluated for their antibacterial, antioxidant and insecticidal activities using Alamar Blue Assay, diphenyl picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and contact toxicity test, respectively. The oils displayed moderate antibacterial potentials to some tested organisms and low radical scavenging activity to DPPH. The insecticidal activity of the peel oil revealed 20% mortality against Rhyzopertha dominica and Callosbruchus analis. The result from the study is indicative of potential of A. comosus essential oil as source of pharmaceuticals.