Comparative study of volatile constituents and antimicrobial activities of leaves and fruit peels of Citrus sinensis Linn.

Abstract

A steam distilled volatile oil from the fresh leaves of Citrus sinensis Linn. analysed by capillary-GC and GCMS yielded eight components, of which seven were monoterpenic (99.6%) and one ester (0.4%). Cis-sabinene hydrate (35.1%) was the predominant monoterpene, followed by l - limonene (30.1%), citral (27.9%), lavendulol (2.5%), perillaldehyde (2.0%), α-pinene (1.4%) and perillyl alcohol (0.6%). The ester obtained was tert.-butyl benzoate (0.4%). Whereas volatile oil from its fresh fruit peels yielded five components of which three were monoterpenes (76.5%) and remaining two were non-terpenic compounds. α-pinene (60.80%) was the predominant monoterpene, followed by verbenone (15.40%) and α-thujene (0.30%).The non-terpenic compounds obtained was N-pentylcyclopentane (11.80%) and cyclopentenyl ethyne (11.70%). The maximum antibacterial activity was shown with 1%v/v of volatile oil collected from Greater Noida, U.P on Staphylococcus aureus (16.4 mm) followed by Escherichia coli (14.2 mm), and maximum anti-fungal activity was shown on Candida albicans (13.1 mm) followed by Aspergillus niger (12.5 mm).