chemical composition, antibacterial and antioxidant profile of essential oil from murraya koenigii (l.) leaves

objective: this study is designed to extract and examine chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of the hydro-distillated essential oil of murraya koenigii leaves from the south region of tamilnadu, india. matherials and methods: gas chromatography (gc) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms) analysis of the essential oil result was indicates the 33 different compounds representing 97.56 % of the total oil. results: major compounds detected in the oil were linalool (32.83%), elemol (7.44%), geranyl acetate (6.18%), myrcene (6.12%), allo-ocimene (5.02), α-terpinene (4.9%), and (e)-β-ocimene (3.68%) and neryl acetate (3.45%). from the identified compounds, they were classified into four groups that are oxygenated monoterpenes (72.15%), monoterpene hydrocarbons (11.81%), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (10.48%) and sesquiterpenes hydrocarbons (03.12%). the antibacterial activity of essential oil has pronounced by disc diffusion method against various pathogenic microbes. conclusion: the oil has a maximum zone of inhibition ability against corynebacterium tuberculosis, pseudomonas aeruginosa, streptococcus pyogenes, klebsiella pneumonia and enterobacter aerogenes. the antioxidant profile of the sample was determined by different test systems. in all the systems, essential oil showed a strongest activity profile within the concentration range.