Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the leaf, bark and fruit oils of Neolitsea fischeri gamble

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of the leaves, bark and fruits of Neolitsea fischeri were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Twenty components comprising 80.3% of the leaf oil, twenty-six components comprising 94.7% of the bark oil and twenty-seven components comprising 78.8% of the fruit oil were identified. The major components in the leaf oil were caryophyllene oxide (33.0%) followed by selin-11-en-4 alpha-ol (14.8%). The bark oil contained 10.2% cadinene and two isomers of cadinol viz. alpha-cadinol (24.5%) and alpha-muurolol (22.2%) as the major components, while the fruit oil had alpha-cadinol (19.9%) and caryophyllene oxide (13.7%) as the major components. The fruit, leaf and bark oils showed moderate to good activity against some of the tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.