Characterization of Szovitsia callicarpa volatile constituents obtained by micro- and hydrodistillation.

The volatile constituents of Szovitsia callicarpa Fisch. & C. A. Mey. were obtained from the fruits by microdistillation, due to the limited plant material availability. Initial GC-MS analyses of the obtained material showed an unidentified major constituent with a molecular ion peak at M+ 280. After hydrodistillation of the plant material, the resulting essential oil was also analyzed by GC and GC-MS, simultaneously. In total, twenty-two compounds, representing 98.6% of the microdistilled sample, were identified, whereas seventeen components were detected in the hydrodistilled oil, representing 98.5% of the total. The GC-MS analyses showed that the samples contained an unidentified major constituent, which was further purified from the hydrodistilled essential oil by micro-column chromatography. The structure was elucidated as alpha-kessyl acetate using 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopic and mass spectroscopic techniques. Other major constituents in the analytes were determined as longipinene, longicyclene and kessane. In addition, both samples, as well as the major compound alpha-kessyl acetate, were tested at 1 mg/mL concentration against the pathogen Candida tropicalis and for its free radical scavenging activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH*) by TLC-bioauthographic techniques. Both preliminary assays at the tested concentration showed no activity.