Biological activity and phytochemical composition of the volatile oils from Basilicum polystachyon

This paper extracted and determined the chemical components of the volatile oil in basilicum polystachyon,and measured and evaluated the bioactivity of the volatile oil in basilicum polystachyon. the oils were obtained by hydrodistillation,and their chemical compositions were separated and determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms). minimum inhibitory concentrations (mic) were determined by using the 8 kinds of plant pathogenic fungi. the free radicals scavenging activity of its volatile oil for the ic50 were investigated by using trolox as the comparison and cytotoxicity by brine shrimp lethal bioassay. the results show that 64 constituents of oils isolated respectively from basilicum polystachyon were identified. the appraised components take up 99.75% of the total peak area. the main composition of the volatile oil is sesquiterpenoids and monoterpene. the results exhibit that the volatile oil in basilicum polystachyon has very strong bioactivity of antimicrobial,antioxidant and cytotoxicity. these results provided the reference for further understanding the chemical components and its bioactivity of this aromatic plant as well as its further development. © 2017,chemical society of pakistan. all rights reserved.