CHARACTERISATION OF ESSENTIAL OIL FROM LEAVES OF Euphorbia heterophylla AND ITS INSECT REPELLENT POTENTIAL

15 PAGES (3302 WORDS) Chemistry Paper
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This study aimed at characterizing essential  oil  from leaves of  E.heterophylla and its insect repellent potential. Essential oil from fresh leaves of  E.heterophylla was extracted by  hydro distillation method, using a  Clevenger apparatus for 4 hours and the  yield was 0.1816%w/w. Repellence  test was conducted by  using 5 cockroaches in number which were  placed in a modified Y-tube Olfactometer and observations recorded for  each and every  odour introduced after 5 minutes in a relatively dark  room.  Repellency  activity  was computed  in percentage form and it  showed 100%. Analysis of  the chemical constituents of  the essential  oil  was done  by  Gas Chromatography coupled with a Mass Selective  Detector, Ethyl benzene(4.58%), p-Xylene (2.22%),o-Xylene(2.73%), Nonane(1.70%), Benzene,1-ethyl-3-methyl-(1.09%), Benzene  ,1,3,5trimethyl(1.09%),Decane  (0.82%), Limonene  (3.39%), Undecane  (0.44%),  3-cyclohexen-1-ol, 4methyl-1-(1-methylethyl)-(0.37%)  and Dodecane  (6.07%)  as the  constituents  of the  essential  oil from E.heterophylla leaves. All  these  chemical constituents are active  ingredients for insect repellants,  thus this essential oil can be  used a natural based insect repellant t  replace  the synthetic insect repellants.   

Key words:  Essential  oil,  Insect  repellent  potential,  Insect  repellant,  DEET,  GC-MS  and Euphorbia heterophylla. 

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