Abstract
A comparative study was done on the dry oils isolated from the leaves and stem portions of Corchrus olitorius (Linn.) growing in Saudi Arabia. Oils were obtained by column chromatography and analysed by Gas Chromatography (GC), Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) and C-13 NMR spectroscopy. The investigation led to the identification of 22 components in leaves oil while as 23 components in stem oil of C. olitorius. On comparison of leaves and stem dry oil components, both the oils were rich in hydrocarbons and fatty acids, but the leaves were found to contain higher percentage of hexadecanoic acid (7, 28.52%) and 2, 4-di tert-butyl phenol (2, 15.01%) as a main components whereas stem dry oil contains ethyl palmitate (6, 26.19%) and 2, 4-di tert-butyl phenol (1, 14.35%) in higher percentage respectively. Also dry oils were tested for antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. Moderate antimicrobial activity with MIC-values between 0.40-0.8 and 1.6->3.2 mg/ml for components of leaves and components of stem oil respectively were observed while as significant anti-oxidant effects were exhibited by both the oil components for DPPH-radical scavenging assay at a dose dependent manner of C. olitorius leaves oil (95.1%) and stem oil (97.1%) at 400 mu g/ml respectively.