Chemical Constituents of Essential Oil from the Leaves of Ghanaian Ocimum gratissimum L.

Abstract

Leaves from Ghanaian Ocimum gratissimum yielded essential oil upon distillation. A fraction from the column chromatography supported infrared and proton nuclear magnetic resonance absorption and also GC-MS revealed that thymol is the major component. The melting point of phenylurethrane derivative of the fraction from the column chromatography conclusively indicated thymol and not eugenol. Also GC-MS analysis on the steam distillation extract of EtOH : hexane mixture (1 : 1) gave these constituents: b-selinene, terpinene-4-ol, l-terpinene, terpinolene, a-terpinene and a-thujene which are not reported in the earlier studies.