Chemical profiling and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of essential oils extracted with two methods from some North Western Himalayan aromatic crops

Solvent-free hydrodistillation adsorption apparatus (HDA) and normal clevenger hydrodistillation (NC) were applied to obtain Juniperus communis, Valerians jatamansi and Hedychium spicatum essential oils (EOs). The yields, chemical compositions and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity of the EOs were investigated. Obtained EOs were analyzed using gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instruments. Recovery improvement was observed in HDA method (30.4%, 27.3% and 29.0% more recovery of EOs than NC method for V. jatamansi, H. spicatum and J. communis, respectively). Present results demonstrated NCV (V. jatamansi EO (essential oil) by NC method) had highest alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 8.20 mu g/mL. As a result, HDA method is considered to be the promising theme for producing EOs with high production recovery. Furthermore, current findings demonstrated that the selected EOs may be a good natural antidiabetic. [GRAPHICS] .