Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Insecticidal Activities of Flowers Essential Oils of Alpinia zerumbet (Pers.) B.L.Burtt & R.M.Sm. from Martinique Island.

Alpinia species, used as ornamental plants and flavoring agents, are renowned for their therapeutic properties and their subsequent use in traditional medicines throughout the world. Alpinia zerumbet (Pers.) B.L.Burtt & R.M.Sm. is the most common Alpinia species encountered in Martinique. Several essential oils (EOs) obtained by hydrodistillation of A. zerumbet flowers collected in various locations on the island at different seasons were analysed to evaluate the influence of the collection period and area on the EOs' chemical compositions and to assess their bioactivity. A combination of GC-FID and GC/MS techniques was used to examine the volatile constituents, leading to the identification of a total of 71 components accounting for 97.8 - 99.3% of the respective total GC-FID areas: among them, nineteen compounds were characterized for the first time in A. zerumbet EOs. The antimicrobial activity of these EOs was assessed against eight bacterial, yeast and fungal strains and two multi-resistant strains: some significant bacteriostatic and fungistatic activities of A. zerumbet flower oils were evidenced. Finally, an interesting insecticidal activity of the flower EO was highlighted for the first time against Aedes aegypti.

New insights in the chemical composition of benzoin balsams.

Benzoin balsam is an anthropic exudate obtained from the bark of several species of Styrax trees that is mainly used as a perfume fixative as well as a flavouring agent. Benzoe tonkinensis Laos (also commercialized under the denomination Siam benzoin balsam) displaying characteristic vanilla notes and already being largely used to flavour all kinds of edible goods, was intended to be proposed by Agroforex Company to the Codex Committee on Food Additives for evaluation as a food additive. For this purpose, the present paper reports the phytochemical characterisation of both the volatile and non-volatile fractions of benzoin balsams and the quantitation of some of the major components by gas and liquid chromatography techniques. Four coniferyl and two morinol derivatives were characterised for the first time in Benzoe tonkinensis Laos. Finally, two liquid chromatographic methods used to easily discriminate Siam from Sumatra balsam (also known as Benzoe sumatranus Indonesia) were developed.

Encapsulation of rutin and naringenin in multilamellar vesicles for optimum antioxidant activity.

Rutin and naringenin, two phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties were encapsulated in lipid-based onion-type multilamellar vesicles (MLVs). After vesicles formation, the free, adsorbed/encapsulated analytes were well separated with size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and rutin and naringenin were quantified with UV-HPLC at 258 nm and 290 nm. A mathematical model was developed to separately calculate the encapsulation and the adsorption yields of both phenols. Naringenin was shown to be poorly encapsulated (<10%) but highly adsorbed on MLVs surface (>60%) whatever MLVs composition. Conversely, rutin showed high encapsulation efficiency (>60%). Entrapment of rutin was proved to be efficient since no leak was observed within 30 days in concentrated MLVs phase, while 16.0±0.3% of rutin was still encapsulated after 30 days when MLVs were diluted in water. Free rutin broke up into quercetin while the encapsulated one remained stable. DPPH assay confirmed that only free and adsorbed rutin participated in antioxidant activity.