Chemical Composition and Trypanocidal Activity of the Essential Oils from Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig (Zingiberaceae)

The composition of the essential oils (EO) from leaves and rhizomes of Hedychium coronarium was analyzed both by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Thirty and thirty-nine compounds were identified, respectively, in the oils from leaves and rhizomes, representing 88% and 86.1% of the whole compositions. Caryophyllene oxide is the major component in rhizomes while 1,8-cineole predominates in leaves oil. Essential oils and major components were tested for trypanocidal activity using procyclic forms of Trypanosoma brucei (427 and 29-13 strains). The cytotoxicity index (CI50), using the MTT colorimetric method, showed that essential oils and 1,8-cineole were inactive (>100 μg·mL−1. Nevertheless, caryophyllene oxide revealed a remarkable activity against both T. brucei strains (CI50 = 65.77 μg·mL−1 and 24.53 μg·mL−1, resp.), and the synergism between caryophyllene oxide plus pentamidine (1 : 1, v/v) highly increased the trypanocidal activity (<1.0 μg·mL−1).