A comparative study on the synergistic activities of fractions and crude essential oil of Syzygium aromaticum

Abstract Background Syzygium aromaticum has been used for over a century because it has biological qualities for several health-related problems, and the crude essential oils are known to contain several components that could be responsible for synergistic or antagonistic potentials in relation to their biological uses. The study was designed to compare the biological activities of the crude essential oil from the bud of Syzygium aromaticum and fractions obtained from column chromatography. Materials and methods The essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation, and two prominent fractions, C1 and C2, were obtained from the column chromatography separation of the crude essential oil. The quantitative phytochemical analysis was done by standard methods, the antioxidant activity was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) scavenging assays. The antifungal activities were assessed by the agar diffusion method, while the anti-inflammatory activity was done using a lipoxygenase inhibitory assay. The major component observed in the crude and fractions was determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. Results The phytochemical analysis showed that phenolic acid, tannin, saponin, flavonoids, alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, and terpenoids were present in variable quantities in all of the fractions and crude essential oil. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value for DPPH scavenging activity ranged from 226.1 to 301.2 µg/mL while that of ABTS scavenging activity ranged from 211.0 to 316.0 µg/mL. The lowest value of IC50 for both DPPH and ABTS was observed in fraction C1. The crude essential oil with a minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) value of 8.00 mg/mL was the most efficient against Candida albicans, Aspergillus penicillum, and Aspergillus niger. The anti-inflammatory assay showed C1 to have the lowest value of IC50 for the lipoxygenase assay. The major component observed in the crude essential oil as well as fraction C1 was eugenol, while fraction C2 had β-caryophyllene as the major component. Conclusions The result showed that all fractions as well as the crude essential oil exhibited antioxidant, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory activities, and the crude essential oil was synergic only with respect to its antifungal activity, while fraction C1 was more efficient as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent.