effect of storage period on the bioactive composition and therapeutic potential of syzygium aromaticum essential oil

Background: essential oil (eo) of syzygium aromaticum is usually used for medicinal purposes. in most cases, it is kept for a long duration. objectives: the work aimed at examining how the duration of storage of the eo affects its medicinal quality of the essential oil. methods: the eo of s. aromaticum was extracted by hydrodistillation. the extracted eo was kept in a cupboard in amber bottles at room temperature for 4, 183, and 365 days. chemical components of the eos were determined by gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (gc-ms). the antioxidant activity was determined by using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (dpph), 2,2-azobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (abts), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (frap) assays. dopamine and butyrylcholinesterase (bche) assays were used to assess the anti-hypertensive activity. the anti-diabetic tendencies were evaluated with the α-glucosidase and α-amylase assays. albumin denaturation and protease were used to estimate the anti-inflammatory activity. results: the results indicate that the eo shows a color change from light yellow in 4 and 183 days of storage to dark brown after 365 days. the results of the gc-ms show a higher value of eugenol in the eo stored for 183 and 365 days (93.15% and 93.46%, respectively). it also shows the presence of eugenol acetate (17.05%) in the eo stored for 4 days, but it was absent in 183 and 365 days of storage. the eo stored for 4 days had a higher inhibition of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertensive, and anti-diabetic parameters tested.conclusion: the results indicate that the higher the period of storage of the essential oil, the less medicinal potency it possesses.