Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of chaulmoogra oil from Hydnocarpus wightiana: A detailed analysis of volatile and fatty acid fractions

The aim of the study was to ascertain the chemical composition of the volatile and fatty acid fractions of chaulmoogra oil from Hydnocarpus wightiana. A series of GC-MS/SPME analyses revealed that chaulmoogra oil contains a diverse array of volatile compounds, with a notable proportion comprising terpene compounds (22.3 %). The GC-MS analysis confirmed the presence of cyclopentenyl fatty acids in chaulmoogra oil from Hydnocarpus wightiana which constituted about 80 % of the fatty acid fraction. Furthermore, the chaulmoogra oil was extracted using methanol. The methanol extract obtained was subjected to GC-MS analysis for the identification of fatty compounds and volatile compounds. Methanol was identified as an effective extractant for the cyclopentenyl fatty acid fraction. The quantitative content of cyclopentenyl fatty acids in the methanol extract was similar to the content of these acids in the whole chaulmoogra oil. This proves that the derivatization method used in this work was appropriate. A further crucial aspect of the research was the assessment of the antibacterial activity of both the whole oil and its methanol extract against reference bacterial strains such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis. The results indicate that both the oil and its fraction obtained through methanol extraction exert a slight bacteriostatic effect on the aforementioned bacterial strains.