Abstract
Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. is a valuable essential oil-producing plant species. It is a shrub and is mostly found in India, China, Japan, Taiwan, and, Northern Thailand. L. cubeba essential oil, which is rich in citral, has been used as a traditional medicine to treat several diseases. The fresh fruits of L. cubeba are used for the extraction of essential oil, and the oil is intense yellowish in color, fresh and has a sweet aromatic flavor. The composition of essential oil varies based on the extraction method, cultivar, plant parts, time of sampling and processing. The current manuscript summarizes the composition as well as pharmacological and economic importance of L. cubeba essential oil. The literature review revealed that the essential oil of L. cubeba exhibited antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiproliferative activities; also, it can be used as pesticide, repellent and fragrance agent in cosmetics. However, further studies are required to bridge the scientific gap of transferring the scientific findings into commercially valuable products. Also, studies on the potential of L. cubeba essential oil in other possible fields like aromatherapy and cognition are desirable.
Highlights
Essential oils are volatile secondary metabolites of plants that can be extracted from several parts of plants, such as flowers, seeds, fruits, twigs, leaves, etc
L. cubeba essential oil is rich in citral, which is an industrially important component used in medicines, flavorings, cosmetics, and insecticides
The results showed that essential oils were potent against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Candida albicans, and the antagonistic activity was concentration-dependent
Summary
Essential oils are volatile secondary metabolites of plants that can be extracted from several parts of plants, such as flowers, seeds, fruits, twigs, leaves, etc. They are the major constituent of perfumes, fragrances, cosmetics and pharmaceutics (Tariq et al, 2019) and are used to treat oral problems (Palombo, 2011). The composition of L. cubeba essential oil varies based on the cultivar, geographical factors, and extraction processes, but a major bioactive constituent of the oil is citral. The composition of essential oil varies based on the extraction method, cultivar, plant parts, time of sampling and processing. The chemical constituents of essential oils isolated from different parts of L. cubeba are presented (Tables S1-S5, Supplementary Material)
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