International Food Research Journal 20(6): 3185-3188 (2013)
Journal homepage: http://www.ifrj.upm.edu.my
Essential oil composition from the flowers of Alstonia scholaris of
Bangladesh
1*
Islam, F., 1Islam, S., 1Nandi, N. C. and 2Satter, M. A.
Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) Laboratories Chittagong,
Chittagong-4220, Bangladesh
2
Institute of Food Science and Technology, BCSIR, Dhaka, Bangladesh
1
Article history
Abstract
Received: 26 June 2013
Received in revised form:
24 July 2013
Accepted: 31 July 2013
The essential oil isolated from the flowers of Alstonia scholaris and growing all over the
country of Bangladesh, was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Sixty compounds were identified in the flower oil. The essential oil compositions of flower
oil 2-Dodecyloxirane (31.83%), Benzene, 1,2-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl)- (8.49%), Spinacene
(6.09%), 1,54-Dibromotetrapentacontane (5.13%), 2,6,10,15-Tetramethylheptadecane (4.91%),
Terpinyl acetate (3.74%), Linalool (2.22%), Tritetracontane (2.17%), 1-Cyclohexanol, 2-(3methyl-1,3-butadienyl)-1,3,3-trimethyl(1.78%),
9-Methyl-5-methylene-8-decen-2-one
(1.58%) as the main constituents.
Keywords
Alstonia scholaris
Flower oil
Essential oil composition
GC-MS
Introduction
Alstonia scholaris (Apocyanaceae) which
is commonly known as Chhatim in Bangali and
Chatiun in Hindi. This Plant is growing to play a vital
role in maintaining human health and improving
the quality of human life from thousands of years
and serves to human the valuable components of
medicines, seasonings, beverages, cosmetics and
dyes. Herbal medicine contains natural substances
that can promote health and reduce illness. The
plant research has increased all over the world
and a large body of evidence has been collected to
show immense potential of medicinal plants used in
various traditional systems from long before or Last
few decades. Furthermore many western drugs had
their origin in plant extract. There are many herbs,
which are used to treat cardiovascular problems,
liver disorders, central nervous system, digestive
and metabolic disorders. They give their potential to
produce significant therapeutic effect and can be used
as drug or supplement in the treatment, management
of various diseases. Herbal drugs or medicinal plants,
their extracts and their isolated compounds have
exhibits spectrum of biological activities.
The plant grows throughout the humid regions
of India, especially in West Bengal, Bangladesh and
west-coast forests of south India (Wiart, 2006). The
plant grows throughout the humid regions of India,
especially in West Bengal and west-coast forests of
south India. The plant is used in Ayurvedic, Unani
and Sidhha/Tamil types of alternative medicinal
systems (Khare, 2007). Alstonia scholaris is known
*Corresponding author.
Email: faridacct@yahoo.com
Tel: +8801717511576
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to be a rich source of alkaloids and there is interest
among the scientist to use this for therapeutic
purposes. Amongst the chemical classes present in
medicinal plant species, alkaloids stand as a class of
major importance in the development of newer drugs
because alkaloids possess a great variety of chemical
structures and have been identified as responsible
for pharmacological properties of medicinal plants.
However, of the large variety of the alkaloids (about
180 alkaloids) isolated, so far only few have been
assessed for biological activities (Versha et al., 2003).
Almost all the parts of plant (bark, flower, root)
are found to contain active principles. The species
Alstonia scholaris is used in commercial formulation
Ayush (Sastri, 1962). The bark of this plant contains
alkaloid ditamine and echitamine, echitenine,
echicaoutchin, an amorphous yellow mass, echicerin
in acicular crystals, echitin in crystallized scales,
echitein in rhombic prisms (a crystallisable acid) and
echiretin an amorphous substance, resembling an
alkaloid, a fatty acid and fatty resinous substances.
An uncrystallisable bitter principle called ditain was
isolated and ascribed the febrifuge properties of the
drug (Nadkarni, 1976).
Traditional bark is bitter, astringent, acrid,
thermogenic, digestive, laxative, anthelmintic,
febrifuge, antipyretic, depurative, galactogogue,
stomachic, cardiotonic and tonic. It is useful in
fever, malarial fever, abdominal disorders, diarrhoea,
dysentery, dyspepsia, leprosy, skin diseases, pruritus,
tumours, chronic and foul ulcers, asthma, bronchitis,
cardiopathy, elminthiasis, agalactia and debility. The
milky exudate is bitter and is good for ulcers, vitiated
3186
Islam et al./IFRJ 20(6): 3185-3188
conditions of vata and otalgia (Kirtikar and Basu,
1980; Nadkarni, 1976). The preparation of infusion
i.e. 1 to 2 ounces of tincture, 1 to 2 drachms diluted in
water and of ditanin 5 to 10 grams given two or three
times a day and an extract is prepared from the fresh
bark and given in milk in cases of leprosy. It is also
used as an anthelmintic (Nadkarni, 1976). Milky juice
is applied to ulcers and to rheumatic pains; mixed
with oil and dropped into ear it relieves earache. The
bark acts in certain cases as a powerful galactogogue.
Juice of the leaves with that of fresh ginger-root or
zedoary is administered to women after confinement.
The zedoary drug is also used in cases of snake-bite
(Nadkarni, 1976). The active constituents of the plant
include antimalarials, CNS depressants, anticancers,
antituberculosis, antidysentrics and galactopoietics
(Sastri, 1962; Nadkarni, 1976; Kirtikar and Basu,
1980).
The Plant of pacifies vitiated vata, pitta, skin
diseases, fever, malaria, diarrhea, dysentery,
indigestion, intestinal worms, tumors, malignancy,
ulcers, wounds cough, bronchitis, insanity, epilepsy
and general debility. The antimicrobial property
of the plant constituents of Alstonia scholaris are
alkanes, alkanols and sterols (Goyal et al., 1995).
Khan et al. (2003) evaluated the antibacterial activity
of the petrol, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, butanol
fractions of crude methanolic extracts of the leaves,
stem and root barks of Alstonia scholaris and reported
that butanol fraction exhibited broader spectrum of
antibacterial activity. Methanol extracts of root barks
of Alstonia macrophylla, Alstonia glaucescens, and
Alstonia scholaris, collected from Thailand, have been
assessed for cytotoxic activity against two human
lung cancer cell lines, MOR-P (adenocarcinoma)
and COR-L23 (large cell carcinoma), using the SRB
assay. Pleiocarpamine, O-methylmacralstonine and
macralstonine were all considerably less active than
villalstonine (Keawpradub et al., 1997).
The plant is used in Ayurvedic, Unani and
Sidhha/Tamil types of alternative medicinal systems.
Leaves and bark are rich in Echitamine, Echitamine
chloride, Scholarine, Scholaricine, monoterpenoid
indole alkaloids, iridoids, coumarins, flavonoids,
simple phenolics, steroids, saponins and tannins
were also found in the plant (Dey, 2011). The plant
is traditionally being used in fever (Rajakumar et al.,
2010), cancer, tumour, jaundice, hepatitis, malaria
and skin diseases (Mollik et al., 2010).
The chemopreventive effect of various doses
of hydroalcoholic extract of Alstonia scholaris on
the benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) induced fore stomach
carcinoma in female mice. The pre or post-treatment
of mice with 4 mg/ml ASE also significantly reduced
the frequency of BaP-induced MN in the splenocytes
of treated animals (Jagetia et al., 2003). Their study
demonstrated that the extract prepared from the
summer collection and the fractions containing the
alkaloids were highly effective in cell killing.
Materials and Methods
Plant material
The flowers of Alstonia scholaris were collected
from the plants grown in the campus of Bangladesh
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(BCSIR) Laboratory, Chittagong during March 2013.
The voucher specimen (Y-112) was deposited in the
herbarium of BCSIR Laboratory, Chittagong.
Extraction of essential oil
Flowers were harvested from healthy, wellgrown plants. Freshly harvested flowers (300 g)
were grounded in a blender separately. The grounded
flowers were subjected to hydro-distillation using
Clevenger apparatus for 4 h for isolation of oils
separately. The oil samples were stored at 0°C in airtight containers after drying them over anhydrous
sodium sulfate and filtered before going to GC-MS
analysis.
GC-MS analysis
The essential oils from flower of Alstonia
scholaris were analyzed by GC-MS electron
impact ionization (EI) method on GC-17A gas
chromatograph (Shimadzu) coupled to a GC-MS QP
5050A Mass Spectrometer (Shimadzu); fused silica
capillary column (30 m x 0.25 mm; 0.25 mm film
thickness), coated with DB-5 ms (JandW); column
temperature 100°C (2 min) to 250°C at the rate of
3°C/min; carrier gas, helium at constant pressure of
90 Kpa. Acquisition parameters full scan; scan range
40 - 350 amu. Samples were injected by splitting and
the split ratio 1:20.
Identification of the compounds
Compound identification was done by comparing
the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) library data of the peaks with those reported
in literature, mass spectra of the peaks with literature
data. Percentage composition was computed from
GC peak areas on DB-5 column without applying
correction factors.
Results and Discussion
The chemical compositions of volatile oil of
flower of Alstonia scholaris are shown in Table 1.
The oil yield varied from 0.10% to 0.02% for the
Islam et al./IFRJ 20(6): 3185-3188
Table 1. Chemical constituents of the flower of Alstonia
scholaris
S/N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
Compound name
Percentage
2-Dodecyloxirane
31.83
Benzene, 1,2-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl)8.49
Spinacene
6.09
1,54-Dibromotetrapentacontane
5.13
2,6,10,15-Tetramethylheptadecane
4.91
Terpinyl acetate
3.74
Linalool
2.22
Tritetracontane
2.17
1-Cyclohexanol, 2-(3-methyl-1,3-butadienyl)-1,3,3-trimethyl1.78
9-Methyl-5-methylene-8-decen-2-one
1.58
7-Hexylicosane
1.39
Methyl tridecanoate
1.23
Palmitic acid
1.01
Oxirane, 2,2-dimethyl-3-(3,7,12,16,20-pentamethyl-3,7,11,15,190.88
heneicosapentaenyl)-, (all-E)[(4-Chloro-[1,2,3]dithiazol-5-ylidene)(nitro)methyl](2,60.86
dimethylphenyl)diazene
2,6-Dimethyl-2,6-undecadien-10-ol
0.82
Rhamnitol, 1-O-octyl0.74
Eugenol
0.68
2,6,10,15-Tetramethylheptadecane
0.68
1,3-Dioxolane,2-(5-bromopentyl)0.65
4-Terpineol
0.62
E-2-Tetradecen-1-ol
0.61
10-Heneicosene (c,t)
0.61
2-Methylenecholestan-3-ol
0.51
2,4-Bis(dimethylbenzyl)phenol
0.50
2,3-Bis(acetyloxy)propyl laurate
0.48
Cyclopentadecanone, oxime
0.44
cis-Myrtanol
0.41
4-Terpineol acetate
0.31
Alpha,alpha,4-trimethylbenzyl carbanilate
0.21
Nerolidyl acetate
0.25
2-(5-Bromopentyl)-1,3-dioxolane
0.36
Dihydroartemisinin, 10-O-(t-butyloxy)0.26
Malonic acid, bis(2-trimethylsilylethyl ester
0.32
2,3-Dipentyl-2-cyclopropene-1-carboxylic acid
0.34
4-(1,3,2-Dioxaborinan-2-yl)-2-nitrobenzoic acid
0.38
Dithioerythritol, O,O',S,S'-tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)0.29
Benzeneacetic acid, 3-[(trimethylsilyl)oxy]-, trimethylsilyl ester
0.33
Methyl 10-methylundecanoate
0.29
6,11-Dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol
0.15
Dithioerythritol, O,O',S,S'-tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)0.19
2-Methylenecholestan-3-ol
0.30
N,N'-Diacetylethylenediamine
0.15
1-Heptatriacotanol
0.24
2,3-Bis(acetyloxy)propyl laurate
0.24
2,3-Bis(acetyloxy)propyl laurate
0.33
3,7,11,15-Tetramethylhexadecyl acetate
0.23
1-Ethyldecyl acrylate
0.15
6,11-Dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol
0.15
2,6-Bis(t-butyl)-4-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol
0.14
9,9-Dimethoxybicyclo[3.3.1]nona-2,4-dione
0.34
t-Butoxyformamid, N-methyl-N-[4-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-2-butynyl]0.37
1,6,10,14-Hexadecatetraen-3-ol, 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-, (E,E)0.26
3,7,11,15-Tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol
0.26
Methyl (3-hydroxy-14-methyl-7-oxopodocarpan-13-yl)acetate
0.25
Ethyl 6-(diethoxyphosphoryl)hexanoate
0.12
Capric ether
0.16
Imidazole-2-carboxylic acid
0.16
3,6-Dimethyl-2,4-heptadione
0.17
3-Buten-2-amine, 4-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-1-yl)0.13
Malonic acid, bis(2-trimethylsilylethyl ester
0.14
flower on a fresh weight basis (W/W). There were
similarities on the library of such major compounds
such as 2-Dodecyloxirane (31.83%), Benzene, 1,2dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-(8.49%),
Spinacene
(6.09%), 1,54-Dibromotetrapentacontane (5.13%),
2,6,10,15-Tetramethylheptadecane (4.91%), Terpinyl
acetate (3.74%), Linalool (2.22%), Tritetracontane
(2.17%),
1-Cyclohexanol,
2-(3-methyl-1,3butadienyl)-1,3,3-trimethyl- (1.78%), 9-Methyl-5methylene-8-decen-2-one (1.58%).
3187
The bark is acrid, bitter, appetizer, laxative,
anthelmintic, a reputed remedy for malaria and also
stated to be efficacious in heart diseases, asthma,
leucoderma, tumours and very good for treatment
of chronic ulcers, chronic diarrhoea. It is used as an
astringent, tonic and febrifuge (Kirtikar and Basu,
1975; Singh and Khan, 1990). Alcoholic extract of
stem bark showed anticancer activity in HS1 human
sarcoma in the embryonated egg (Anonymous, 1987).
It also finds its use as antidysentric and antiseptic
(Chopra et al., 1994).
The principal constituents were reported to
be linalool (35.7%), cis and trans linalool oxides,
alpha-terpineol and terpinen-4-ol (Dung et al.,
2001). Atta-ur-Rahman et al. reported the isolation
of an anilinoacrylate alkaloid, scholaricine, from
the leaves of Alstonia scholaris to which structure
2- (demethylschoarine) has been suggested (Rahman
et al., 1985; Rahman, 1986). They also reported
the isolation of 19, 20-dihydrocondylocarpine
alkaloid from the leaves of Alstonia scholaris
(Rahman et al., 1986). Atta-ur-Rahman et al. (1987)
also isolated 19, 20-Z- Vallesamine and 19, 20EVallesamine from Alstonia scholaris. Lagunamine
(19-hydroxytubotaiwine), angustilobine B acid and
losbanine (6,7-seco-6-norangustilobine B) were
obtained from the leaves of Philippine Alstonia
scholaris, together with tubotaiwine, its oxide and
6,7-seco-angustilobine B, 17-OAcetylechitamine
was isolated from the bark of the plant along with
echitamine (Yamauchi et al., 1990). Macabeo et al.
reported the isolation and structural elucidation (MS
and NMR) of first seco-uleine alkaloids, manilamine
(18-hydroxy-19,20-dehydro-7,21-seco-uleine) and
N4-methyl angustilobine B) from the (pH 5) alkaloid
extract of Philippine Alstonia scholaris leaves
together with the known indole alkaloids 19,20(E) vallesamine, angustilobine B N4- oxide, 20(S)tubotaiwine and 6,7-seco-angustilobine B (Macabeo
et al., 2005).
Conclusions
It may be concluded that Alstonia scholaris is
growing widely in Bangladesh, may be utilized as a
source for the isolation of natural 2-Dodecyloxirane
(31.83%), Benzene, 1,2-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl)(8.49%) and Spinacene (6.09%) respectively, for
medicinal and commercial use.
Acknowledgment
The research was supported by Bangladesh
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR)
Laboratories Chittagong, Bangladesh.
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Islam et al./IFRJ 20(6): 3185-3188
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