Correlation between chemical composition and antioxidant activity of the essential oils from leaves and berries of Schinus molle L. growing in two areas of Bejaia (Algeria)

Schinus molle L. is a medicinal and aromatic plant used in traditional medicine for his therapeutic properties. The leaves and berries of Schinus molle L. were collected in Iheddaden and Amriw (Bejaia, Algeria) and the essential oils were isolated by hydrodistillation with yields between 0.26 and 0.80%. The chemotype of the essential oils was sesquiterpene group, cadinene and cadinols subgroups. The cadinene subgroup was obtained from Iheddaden leaves and Amriw samples (leaves and berries) with proportions between 16.1 and 23.4%, while the cadinols subgroup was only shown with Iheddaden berries (30.5%). The antioxidant activities of the essential oils from leaves and berries of Schinus molle L. were low: IC50 DPPH were between 6.9 and 8.6 mg/mL, when IC50 ABTS varied between 0.7 and 5.0 mg/mL. Principal component analysis indicates that high proportions of oxygenated sesquiterpenes promote the antioxidant activity of essential oils from Schinus molle L. against ABTS radical, while the antioxidant activity against the DPPH radical requires the combination of the different chemical families contained in the essential oils of Schinus molle L.