African Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry The chemical composition of essential oil from the root of Cissampelos owariensis (p.beauv) and free radical scavenging activities of its extracts

Air dried root of Cissampelos owariensis (P.Beauv) on steam distillation yielded 0.82% (w/w) of essential oil. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the oil resulted in the identification of 11 compounds, among which 1H-cyclopropa[a]naphthalene,1a, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 7a, 7b-octahydro-1, 1, 7, 7a-tetramethyl-,(1aR-1aa, 7a, 7aa, 7ba) was found to be the most abundant at 39%. The antioxidant features of the 3 extracts (methanol, chloroform, and n-hexane) of the plant were also evaluated by UV-visible spectrophotometer at 517 nm using inhibition of 2, 2 -diphenyl-1-picrylhyrazyl radical (DPPH) and vitamin C as standard. Out of all the extracts evaluated, only the methanolic extract exhibited potent antioxidant activity that was concentration dependent, followed by chloroform extract as compared with vitamin C