Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 4(20), pp. 2128-2131, 18 October, 2010 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/JMPR ISSN 1996-0875 ©2010 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Chemical component studies on the leaf and inflorescence essential oil of Hyptis brevipes (Poit.) Md. Nazrul Islam Bhuiyan*, Jaripa Begum and Nemai Chandra Nandi BCSIR Laboratories Chittagong, Chittagong-4220, Bangladesh. Accepted 5 July, 2010 Hyptis brevipes Poit. leaf and inflorescence essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation, were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). Fifty seven components were identified in the leaf oil. The major components were germacrene D (13.54%), caryophyllene (12.31%), phthalamide doxime (9.47%) and caryophyllene oxide (8.57%). Thirty seven components were identified in inflorescence oil with the main components being in caryophyllene oxide (45.09%), 1,5,5,8-tetramethyl-12-Oxabicyclo [9.1.0] dodeca-3,7-diene (4.95%), caryophyllene (4.79%) and α-bourbonene (4.20%). The compositions of both oils varied qualitatively and quantitatively. Key words: Hyptis brevipes, essential oil, GC-MS analysis, germacrene D, caryophyllene oxide. INTRODUCTION Hyptis brevipes Poit. (Syns. Hyptis lanceolata Poir, Leucas poggeana Briq., Hyptis lanceifolia Thonn., Lasiocorys poggeana (Briq.), Hyptis acuta Benth.) belongs to the family Lamiaceae. It is a weed of waste places, plantation crops, forest margins and becoming abundant in fallow ground. It prefers a wet tropical climate, less common in regions with a seasonal wet/dry regime (Waterhouse and Mitchell, 1998). The genus Hyptis comprising more than 300 species, exhibits a major morphological diversity found in various tropical and subtropical regions of the world including Bangladesh. Most of them originate from tropical America. This specie is quite aromatic and is frequently used in treatments of gastrointestinal infections, cramps, and pain, as well as skin infections (Correa, 1931). The plant is used in the southern Sahara to treat asthma and malaria, cereals conservation (Adjanohoun et al., 1986) and to repel mosquitoes (Seyoum et al., 2002). The plant showed antibacterial and antifungal activities (Goun et al., 2003; Zollo et al., 1998). But the species H. lanceolata (Zollo et al., 1998) was less described. Koba et al. (2007) reported that H. lanceolata leaf essential oil rich in germacrene D (27.8 %), -caryophyllene (12.6 %) *Corresponding author. E-mail: nazrul119@yahoo.com. and -elemene (9.5 %). The most abundant constituents identified in the oil of H lanceolata were -pinene (40.7%) and germacrene D (19.9%) (Tchoumbougnang et al., 2005). Despite those intensive works done to investigate the chemical composition of Hyptis species essential oil all over the world. But there is no published report in the literature about the chemical composition of H. brevipes essential oil from Bangladesh. So, an attempt has been taken to investigate the chemical components of essential oil obtained from the leaves and inflorescences of H. brevipes grown in Bangladesh. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant material Fresh leaves and inflorescences of H. brevipes were collected from the plants grown in the campus of BCSIR Laboratory, Chittagong during June 2007. One-voucher specimen (Y-26) was deposited in the herbarium of BCSIR Laboratory, Chittagong. Extraction of essential oil Leaves and inflorescences of H. brevipes were cut into small pieces and subjected to hydrodistillation method using Clevenger’s apparatus for 4 h (Clevenger, 1928). The oil were extracted with diethyl ether and dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate.