Antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity of the leaf essential oil of Morus rotunbiloba Koidz

Essential oils from the leaf of Morus rotunbiloba Koidz was extracted and analysed using steam distillation and GC-MS. The results obtained indicated that the main components of the extracts are benzyl alcohol (10.48%), dihydroactinolide (10.11%) and palmitic acid (7.01%). The oil possessed strong antibacterial activity against Vibrio cholerae O139 DMST 9701, Samonella paratyphi A DMST 8486, Serratia marcescens ATCC 8100 and Samonella choleraesuis ATCC 10708 with minimum inhibition concentration of 1.33, 2.66, 2.66 and 10.65 mu g/ml, respectively. The oil was tested for anticancer activity on human larynx epidermoid carcinoma and colon adenocarcinoma cell lines and found to have cytotoxic activity to both cancerous cell lines, with LC50 of 70 and 120 mu g/ml, respectively. The results obtained from antibacterial and anticancer tests indicated that essential oils from M. rotunbiloba can be used for the applications in food and pharmaceutical proposes.