Chemical composition and biological activity of Liquidambar styraciflua L. leaf essential oil

Abstract The essential oil of plants has potential biological activity and has attracted considerable interest in the pharmaceutical industry. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the chemical composition and the biological potential of L. styraciflua leaf essential oil. The essential oil composition was analyzed using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The main compounds were α-pinene (43.7%), β-pinene (10.7%), d -limonene (35.3%), and terpinen-4-ol (10.3%). The essential oil exhibited good anti-inflammatory activity in a concentration-dependent manner, evaluated using a hyaluronidase enzyme inhibition assay. Results showed also that there is a good synergistic effect with the combination of essencial oil and tetracycline by the checkboard method against most of test microorganisms. The best synergic effect was obtained against B. subtillis , with a fractional inhibitory concentration index of 0.06. A low cytotoxic profile in Vero cells was observed for the essential oil, with a positive selective index value against almost all bacterial strains, indicating potential selective activity. All essential oil concentrations were found to cause 100% mortality in house dust mites after 24 h of a direct contact assay, which was significantly higher than the synthetic acaricide, showing that the essential oil has a higher acaricidal activity. The chemical composition L. styraciflua leaf EO were identified and defined the main components as α-pinene (43.7%), d -limonene (35.3%), β-pinene (10.7%), and terpinen-4-ol (10.3%) e showed biological activity as good anti-inflammatory activity and synergistic interactions with tetracycline and ciprofloxacin against pathogenic bacteria.