Chemical composition and Antioxidant activity of essential oil from flowers of Couroupita guianensis Aubl. from El Salvador

Couroupita guianensis Aubl. (Lecythidaceae) “Cannonball tree” is a tropical plant with ethnobotanical uses. The present study is focused on analyzing the essential oil composition of Couroupita guianensis (C. guianensi) fresh flowers collected in El Salvador. Steam distillation, coupled with GC/FID and GC/MS analysis were employed to characterize the chemical composition and in vitro antioxidant activity study were carried out using DPPH assay. Eugenol was identified to be the most abundant constituent and quantified as 46.20 % of the total volatiles. Other constituents were found to be 2 -phenylethanol ( 34.82 %), ( E ) − ( E ) -farnesol ( 5.53 %), nerol ( 3.95 %), geraniol ( 3.20 %), benzyl alcohol ( 1.77 %). D P P H assay showed a dose-dependent antioxidant activity. The study demonstrated that C. guianensis essential oil from El Salvador is a rich source of eugenol, which may be responsible for its antioxidant properties. Based on these results, further studies on the antibacterial and antifungal activity of C. guianensis essential oil are of fundamental importance.