GC-MS and FTIR Characterization of essential oil from the fresh leaves of <i>Pandanus candalabrum</i> obtained from Bayelsa state, Nigeria

Abstract

The potentials of medicinal plants are due to the presence of phytochemicals; among which are the essential oils. Essential oils have been reported to be of great benefit to help protect the body from the onslaught of pathogens and it is used in perfumery and as flavoring agents. Hence, this research work aims at characterizing essential oils that could be possibly found in Pandanus candalabrum and their functional groups. The essential oil characterization of the leaves of Pandanus candalabrum was carried out on the fresh leaves of the plant using steam distillation apparatus. The extracted oil components were further subjected to a GC-MS machine to characterize the extracted essential oil into its chemical constituents. From the GC-MS analysis, it was found that compounds such as Camphene, Cembrene, Phytol, Kaur-16-ene and Phenanthrene were detected at different percentage abundance and molecular weight. Kaur-16-ene has been reported to possess analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. It was also found that Kaur-16-ene was the most abundant of all the components with the percentage abundance of 84.62% and a molecular weight of 272.468g/mol. The FTIR revealed the presence of prominent peak of carboxylic functional at 2958.08cm^-1 alkenes at 1598.10cm^-1 and renes at 1457.86cm^-1.

Key words: Pandanus Candalabrum, steam distillation, Essential oil, Extraction, GC-MS, Bayelsa