Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oil and Organic Extracts ofCestrum nocturnumL.

This study was designed to examine the chemical composition and in vitro antioxidant activity of the essential oil and different organic extracts of Cestrum nocturnum L. The quantification and the identification of the extracts recovered were accomplished using GC-MS analyses. The antioxidant potential of the samples was evaluated by using two separate methods like, inhibition of free radical l, l-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and assay of superoxide radical scavenging activities. In the first case, the IC50 (concentration of sample required to scavenge 50 % of free radicals) value of the essential oil of C. nocturnum was determined and it was estimated to be 24.45 ± 1.7 μg/ml. Among all the extracts used, the strongest activity was exhibited by the methanolic extract with an IC50 value of 25.58 ± 0.9μg/ml. In the superoxide radicals scavenging activities assay, methanol fraction was the superior to all other fractions (IC50 = 24.60 ± 1.5 μg/ml). Furthermore, the amount of total phenolic compounds in the extracts was also determined as gallic acid equivalent.