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

Abstract

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 (CI 50 ), using the MTT colorimetric method, showed that essential oils and 1,8-cineole were inactive (&gt;100 μ g·mL −1 . Nevertheless, caryophyllene oxide revealed a remarkable activity against both T. brucei strains (CI 50 = 65.77 μ g·mL −1 and 24.53 μ g·mL −1 , resp.), and the synergism between caryophyllene oxide plus pentamidine (1 : 1, v/v) highly increased the trypanocidal activity (&lt;1.0 μ g·mL −1 ).