Research Article Open Access Volume 2 • Issue 1 • 1000115 Organic Chem Curr Res ISSN:2161-0401 OCCR an open access journal Open Access Research Article Organic Chemistry Current Research Ololade et al., Organic Chem Curr Res 2013, 2:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0401.1000115 Keywords: Callitris columellaris; Secondary metabolites; Post- hydrodistilled; Retentate; Antioxidant Introduction Callitris columellaris, an evergreen tropical plant commonly called white cypress-pine, belongs to the family Cupressaceae. It is a distinct aromatic plant with several medicinal applications to cure many ailments [1]. Te primary essential oil from this plant has been shown to have considerable antioxidant and antiinfammatory properties [2]. Much interest has recently been focused on the development of drugs from natural origins and screening of plants has led to the discovery of novel therapeutics [3]. Hydrodistillation which is one of the major and common methods of extracting natural and neat essential oils of plant materials involves some physicochemical processes hydrodifusion and hydrolysis. Te main shortcoming of hydrodistillation is that complete extraction is not possible; during distillation, part of the essential oil becomes dissolved in condensate or distillation water, which unless recovered, is lost as this water is discarded. Some phytocompounds are usually returned or recycled and retained in the fask as retentate and not collected along with the primary essential oil. Te high-boiling and somewhat water-soluble oil and non-volatile constituents cannot be completely collected. Oxygenated components such as phenols have a tendency to dissolve in the warm water, so their complete removal by distillation is not possible. Important phytocompounds are more soluble in hydrosol or retentate. For these reasons, attempts were made to recover the dissolved essential oil from distillation water employing diferent techniques [4,5]. Solvent extraction was found to be highly efective, providing an essential oil with a composition enriched in terpenoids. Solvent extraction is able to produce essential oils whose fragrance would otherwise be destroyed or altered during hydrodistillation. Solvent extraction is also used on delicate plants to produce higher amounts of essential oils. Solvent extraction is also useful method for capturing the total spectrum of essential oil constituent in plant. To the best of our knowledge, no literature on the recovered secondary metabolites of post-hydrodistilled C. columellaris leaf and their free radical scavenging potentials have been reported so far. Te present research was therefore undertaken for the frst time. *Corresponding author: Ololade ZS, Department of Chemical Sciences, Bells University of Technology, P.M.B. 1015, Ota, Nigeria, Tel: +2348034836546; E-mail: suntolgroup@yahoo.com Received January 25, 2013; Accepted March 25, 2013; Published March 30, 2013 Citation: Ololade ZS, Olawore NO, Kolawole AS, Ajewole OO (2013) Recovered Secondary Metabolites of Post-Hydrodistilled Callitris columellaris Leaf and their Free Radical Scavenging Potentials. Organic Chem Curr Res 2: 115. doi:10.4172/2161-0401.1000115 Copyright: © 2013 Ololade ZS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Recovered Secondary Metabolites of Post-Hydrodistilled Callitris columellaris Leaf and their Free Radical Scavenging Potentials Ololade ZS 1 *, Olawore NO 2 , Kolawole AS 1 and Ajewole OO 1 1 Department of Chemical Sciences, Bells University of Technology, P.M.B. 1015, Ota, Nigeria 2 Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, P.M.B. 4000, Ogbomoso, Nigeria Material and Methods Plant materials and extraction of phytochemicals Te leaves of the C. columellaris were collected from their natural habitats in northern part of Nigeria. Te sample was identifed at the Forest Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan. Te retentate of the hydrodistilled sample was collected, moisture content reduced and re-extracted with methanol to obtain secondary essential oil extract. Te extract was concentrated and stored at low temperature in vial [6]. GC and GC-MS analysis GC and GC-MS analysis of the secondary essential oil was carried out with capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm, 0.25 μm flm thickness) interfaced with mass detector operating in the EI+ mode (Ionization energy: 70 eV) and ultra-high purity helium (fow rate: 1 ml/min) was used as carrier gas. Temperature program were used as follows: Initial column oven temperature of 60°C (hold: 2 min) programmed at a rate of 3°C/min to a fnal temperature of 220°C (hold: 5 min). Diluted samples 0.1 μl was injected in the splitless mode. Te mass spectra were recorded over 40-500 amu that revealed the total ion current (TIC) chromatograms. Temperature program was used as the same as described above for GC analysis. Te temperatures of the injector, transfer line and ion source were maintained at 210°C, 210°C and 200°C, respectively. Te identifcation of the compounds was based Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the recovered secondary metabolites of post-hydrodistilled Callitris columellaris leaf and their in vitro free radical scavenging potentials. Secondary metabolites in essential oil form were obtained from the leaf of C. columellaris and analysed by GC and GC-MS, where 77 phytocompounds were identifed representing 99.30% of the oil extract, out of which m-cymene (8.40%), γ-4-dimethylbenzenebutanal (7.30%), 4β-17-(acetyloxy)-kauran-18-al (7.0%), cis-8-isopropylbicyclo[4.3.0]non-3-ene (4.30%), 7-methoxymethyl- 2,7-dimethylcyclohepta-1,3,5-triene (3.40%) and DL-E-nuciferol (3.40%) were detected as the principal components. The extract exhibited high antioxidant activity in DPPH free radical scavenging assay (IC 50: 70μgml -1 ). The present study clearly demonstrated that the post-hydrodistilled retentate of C. columellaris still possess some useful phytocompounds that have antioxidant properties and may act as potential natural antioxidant for pharmacological systems susceptible to free radical-mediated reactions.