Essential oils from<i>Schinus terebinthifolius</i>leaves – chemical composition and<i>in vitro</i>cytotoxicity evaluation

Abstract

The obtained results indicated that the monoterpenes α- and β-pinenes could be responsible to the cytotoxic activity detected in the crude oil from leaves of S. terebinthifolius. In addition, it was possibly inferred that the presence of double bond in their structures, mainly at endocyclic position, is crucial to cytotoxic potential detected in these derivatives.