Chemodiversity essential oil from three species of (Euphorbiaceae) and assessment of antimicrobial potential.

The genus is known for its various biological properties, which inspired this study to investigate the anti-bacterial pro-perties and chemodiversity of the essential oils of three Croton species: , , and . The essential oils were characterised by gas chromatography (GC-MS) and demonstrated anti-bacterial activity against and using the disc diffusion method. The essential oil composition of showed bicyclogermacrene (16.04%) and spathulenol (16.44%) as the main compounds. In , bicyclogermacrene (22.04%), caryophyllene (17.95%), and β-phellandrene (12.30%) were the most prevalent. Meanwhile, essential oil consisted mainly of bicyclogermacrene (17.69%), caryophyllene (15.15%), and germacrene D (11.78%). The principal component analysis (PCA) results showed three distinct chemotypes for each species, suggesting that they have well-defined and unique chemical profiles. Interestingly, the three species demonstrated activity only against bacteria.