Chemical Composition, Antibacterial, Enzyme-Inhibitory, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Essential Oil from Hedychium puerense Rhizome

Hedychium puerense, a perennial rhizomatous herb, is used as an ornamental, medicinal, and edible plant in Yunnan Province, China. Essential oils from Hedychium plants are widely used in perfumes and traditional medicine, but there are no studies on the constituents and bioactivities of H. puerense essential oil (EO). Therefore, this study was designed to explore the chemical composition, antibacterial, enzyme-inhibitory, and anti-inflammatory activities of H. puerense rhizome EO. The gas chromatography with flame ionization or mass selective detection (GC-FID/MS) results indicated that H. puerense EO was mainly composed of linalool (26.5%), beta-pinene (18.6%), gamma-terpinene (12.1%), terpinen-4-ol (7.7%), alpha-pinene (5.8%), sabinene (4.9%), E-nerolidol (4.1%), and p-cymene (3.6%). For biological activities, H. puerense EO displayed broad-spectrum antibacterial properties against Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli with diameter of inhibition zone (DIZ) values ranging from 7.44 to 10.30 mm, a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 3.13-6.25 mg/m), and a minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 3.13-12.50 mg/mL. Moreover, the EO significantly inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) (IC50 = 0.94 +/- 0.02 mg/mL) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) (IC50 = 1.32 +/- 0.06 mg/mL) activities, and exhibited a moderate inhibitory effect on alpha-glucosidase (IC50 = 5.42 +/- 0.32 mg/mL) and tyrosinase (IC50 = 3.23 +/- 0.21 mg/mL). Furthermore, the EO significantly suppressed the secretion of the pro-inflammatory mediator, nitric oxide (NO) (99.23 +/- 0.26%), cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) (97.14 +/- 0.11%), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) (82.42 +/- 0.16%) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells at 250 mu g/mL without cytotoxicity. Hence, H. puerense EO can be considered a bioactive, natural product that has great potential for utilization in the fields of food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutics.