A comparative study of essential oil profile, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of thirty Piper betle landraces towards selection of industrially important chemotypes

Abstract

Betelvine (Piper betle L.) is an economically and medicinally important cash crop valued for its fresh leaves in many countries of Asia. The leaves are widely used in the Indian system of medicine for treatment of conjunctivitis, headache, rheumatism etc. Further, the leaf essential oil possesses many volatile constituents like eugenol, chavibetol and hydroxyl chavibetol. The substantial antiseptic property of betel oil is due to the presence of a bioactive constituent chavibetol. In the present report, chemical profiling and bioactivity study of thirty landraces has been reported. The yield of essential oil was highest in landrace L10 (0.53 %) followed by L8 (0.4 %). Constituent identification through GC-MS analysis showed fifty-four compounds representing 82.07–98.94 % of the total essential oil. Chavibetol was found to be the major constituent ranging from 23.52 % to 81.32 %. Highest percentage of chavibetol was found in L10 (81.32 %) followed by L6 (71.14 %) and L29 (63.25 %). Highest antioxidant activity was also recorded in L10. Inhibition zone diameter (IZD) and Minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) assay were determined against some multi drug resistant bacterial strains such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter cloacae. Depending upon the essential oil quality and bioactivity, five landraces of betelvine were selected as elite landraces. Selected elite germplasms with high essential oil and chavibetol content will boost the export potential of betelvine. The present report will be helpful for future improvement of betelvine cultivars and boost commercial potential of this crop.