Agarwood (Aquilaria malaccensis L.) a quality fragrant and medicinally significant plant based essential oil with pharmacological potentials and genotoxicity

Abstract

Aquilaria malaccensis (agarwood essential oil), is a highly priced medicinal and most expensive aromatic oil in the industry. The purpose of the current study was to assess the chemical makeup of a naturally insect infested agarwood essential oil and its potential therapeutic uses. Essential oil of infected agarwood was extracted using Clevenger apparatus and the chemical analysis of essential oil was carried out using GC/MS technique. Pharmacology evaluation includes – tyrosinase inhibitory, anti-cholinesterase (AChE), anti-urolithic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and antioxidant assays. Standard methodologies such as tyrosinase inhibitor, α-amylase inhibitor, AChE inhibitory, aggregation, protease inhibitor, DPPH, ABTS, and metal chelating assays were used for evaluation of pharmacological potential. GC/MS analysis revealed cubenol (22.26%), agarospirol (14.35%) and aristolene (13.22%) as major compounds. Radical scavenging activity of agarwood essential oil showed 50% inhibition (IC50 using XLSTAT software) at the concentration of 40.14 ± 0.0192 µL/mL. Furthermore, the antioxidant capacity from ABTS assay, α-amylase inhibitory potential, tyrosinase inhibitory activity, AChE inhibitory assay, anti-urolithic activity and in-vitro anti-inflammatory activity protein denaturation assay were confirmed with IC50 values of 76.95 ± 0.0090 µL/mL, 30.78 ± 0.0018 µL/mL, 38.06 ± 0.0016 µL/mL, 13.41 ± 0.0374 µL/mL, 34.14 ± 0.0202 µL/mL and 22.42 ± 0.0560 µL/mL respectively. At 1 µL/mL concentration Allium cepa genotoxicity assay resulted agarwood essential oil Mitotic Index (MI) value of 14.26%, with a chromosomal aberration of 9.30%. Genotoxicity results for A. malaccensis essential oil showed negative toxic effect at 1 µL/mL concentration. The essential oil did not exhibit any anti-microbial activity against all the tested microbial strains. From the study it is concluded that agarwood essential oil could be used for antioxidant, anti-diabetic, skin whitening, and anti-inflammatory drug formulations in near future.