Abstract
The essential oil of the aerial parts of edible Lathyrus ochrus L. was investigated by simultaneous GC, GC/MS analyses under the same conditions. Trace amount of oil (0.01> mL) obtained by hydro distillation of 200 g fresh plants was trapped in 1 mL n-hexane. Twenty components were detected representing 91.55 +/- 0.56 % of the oil. The main components were phytol 49.39 +/- 0.44 %, hexadecanoic acid 20.64 0.89 % and pentacosane 4.20 0.09 %. Essential oil solution (1% oil: n-hexane) afforded similar DPPH scavenging activity (9.28 +/- 1.30 %) when compared with positive controls a-tocopherol (9.74 +/- 0.21 %) and BHT (7.79 +/- 0.26 %) at the same concentrations. Antioxidant activity of the oil was determined using a new HPTLC-PRAP assay. The oil afforded two fold higher reducing activity of phosphomolybdenum complex (594.85 +/- 5.14 AU) when compared with positive controls alpha- tocopherol (271.10 +/- 2.86 AU) and BI-IT (210.53 +/- 1.81 AU) at the same concentration.