Environmental stress tolerance, hydro-distilled essential oils characteristics and biological activities of Eucalyptus torquata Luehm.

Abstract

Eucalyptus has become one of the most widely planted genera in the world because of its tolerance to a wide range of soil types and climates, as well as for its many industrial, commercial and medicinal uses. Eucalyptus torquata Luehm. is a plantation species frequently planted in semi-arid and arid regions for its ecological, forestry, ornamental and melliferous interests. Based on literature, drought tolerance of this species was mostly directed to adaptation mechanisms. Physiological investigations reveal the importance of stomatal closure and increased solute contents suggesting that osmotic adjustment is one of the main responses to drought in E. torquata. On the other hand, it showed low sensitivity to salt stress. This paper also highlights the immense benefits of E. torquata which contains essential oils with variable chemical composition and rich essentially in 1,8-cineole, torquatone, α-pinene, trans-myrtanol, α-eudesmol, β-eudesmol, globulol, trans-pinocarveol and aromadendrene. These oils, as well as the methanol and aqueous extracts possess a wide variety of bioactivities of great importance which are particularly valuable as antibacterial and antifungal agents also have a strong toxicity against insects and mites in addition to antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects against different types of cancer cells.