Chemical Constituents and Antimicrobial Activity of the Leaf Essential Oil of Garcinia kola Heckel (Clusiaceae) from Nigeria

All parts of Garcinia kola are used in traditional medicine for various ailments including inflammation and infections. The leaf essential oil (EO) of Garcinia kola was isolated by hydrodistillation using Clavenger type apparatus and subjected to GC-MS analyses. A total of twenty-seven compounds were identified representing 88.27% of the oil. The main components of the essential oil were citronellic acid (48.3%), 5,9-undecadien-2-one (5.12%), α-ionone (4.38%), 3-buten-2-one (3.25%), 2-pentadecanone (2.59%), squalene (2.27%), nonacosane (2.18%), octanal (1.9%), geraniol (1.52%), mesitylene (1.17%) and α-farnesene (1.02%). The oil contained many compounds that were active against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans and Mycobacterium bovis with minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from >400 to 50 μg/ml and could be exploited for the development of plant-based drugs.