Chemical components of the volatile oil from leaves of Cananga odorata and its anti-oxidant activity.

Cananga odorata (Lamk.) Hook. f. et Thoms., belonging to Annonaceae, is an evergreen tree. The oils extracted from its flower are a famous perfume and used in daily chemical and food industry. Although this plant has been widely cultivated in tropical regions of the world, the yield of oils from its flower is very limited. In order to develop the other parts of this plant, the chemical constituents of the volatile oils from the leaves of C. odorata was analyzed by gas chromatography/flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and GC/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). And the volatiles showed nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory activity with an IC₅₀ value of 37.61μg/mL and anti-oxidant activity with an IC50 value of 3.84mg/mL, respectively.