Abstract
The essential oils of Eugenia uniflora leave possess several biological activities but a great variability in their chemical composition is observed. In the present study, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry were applied to examine the essential oil from leaves of four different specimens over the seasons of the year, two of which are located in a habitat of a Brazilian metropolis, and the other two in a natural reserve. The collected data allowed identifying twenty-nine compounds; an aliphatic ketone, sesquiterpenes, fatty acids, hydrocarbons, and phthalate derivatives. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated sesquiterpenes were the chemical classes prevailing in most samples. The curzerene was observed in higher content (10.5-53.4%) in all samples in which the presence of sesquiterpenes class was confirmed. Phthalate derivatives were identified for the first time in the essential oil of E. uniflora leaves. The occurrence of a common chemical marker for four specimens was not observed. Besides, no compound was observed in the same specimen throughout the seasons, and specimens of the same habitat exhibited different essential oil chemical profiles. According to the multivariate analysis applied to the chemical profile for all individuals in different seasons, four different clusters were identified without dependence on season or location. Key word: Eugenia uniflora, seasonality, location, essential oil, chemical composition.
Highlights
The Myrtaceae family is comprised of more than 140 genera and about 5744 species distributed in different regions of the world (The Plant List, 2013a)
Thirty compounds present in the essential oil leaf of specimens Eu1, Eu2, Eu3, and Eu4 were identified in the four seasons of the year by CG-MS analysis
According to the chemical constituents' data, the essential oils of E. uniflora leaves indicate the expressive presence of sesquiterpenes, while the Wi3 and Wi4 samples showed the identification of only hydrocarbons and/or phthalate derivatives
Summary
The Myrtaceae family is comprised of more than 140 genera and about 5744 species distributed in different regions of the world (The Plant List, 2013a). Several pharmacological activities are reported for the essential oils from E. uniflora leaves such as cytotoxic, antibacterial (Figueiredo et al, 2019; Sobeh et al, 2016), antifungal (Siega, 2018; Souza et al, 2018), leishmanicidal (da Silva et al, 2018), molluscicide (Pinheiro et al, 2017), analgesic (Savegnago et al, 2015), antioxidant (Victoria et al, 2012), larvicide (Leite et al, 2009), repellent (Lobo et al, 2019), antiproliferative (Gomes et al, 2020), anti-inflammatory (Falcão et al, 2018), antinociceptive and hypothermic (Amorim et al, 2009). Some of these activities were associated with the leaf oil compounds, such as selina-1,3,7(11)-trien-8-one (36.37 %) and selina-1,3,7(11)-trien-8-one epoxide (27.32%) (dos Santos et al, 2018). The sesquiterpenes selina-1,3-7(11)trien-8-one and oxidoselina-1,3-7(110-trien-8-one isolated from the essential oil of E. uniflora leaves showed pro-oxidative activity and citoxicity in relation to the IMR90 cell line (Ascari et al, 2021)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
