Abstract
Chemical composition of the essential oil hydrodistilled from the flowers of Anthemis palestina Reut. ex Boiss. (Asteraceae) collected from Northern Jordan has been analyzed by means of GC and GC-MS. The extracted oil was further evaluated for its general cytotoxicity using Brine Shrimp Lethality test (BST). About 109 compounds, constituting more than 97.0 % of oil content, were successfully identified. Sesquiterpenes (71.4 %), mainly the oxygenated (44.8 %), represented the main oil fraction, while, moderate levels of monoterpenes (19.4 %), mainly as oxygenated (18.5 %), were observed in the studied oil. The principal oil components were spathulenol (9.8 %), germacrene-D (8.9 %), and caryophyllene oxide (6.8 %). Other major identified components were thujanol acetate (3.7 %), E-β-farnesene (3.5 %), bornyl andelate (3.2 %), 1,8-cineole (2.9 %), terpinen-4-ol (2.6 %), salvial-4(14)-en-1-one (2.5 %), and α-cadinol (2.4 %). The Brine shrimp lethality test (BST) results showed a potent general cytotoxicity with LC of 12.0 mg/mL.