Characterization of chemical compositions by a GC–MS/MS approach and evaluation of antioxidant activities of essential oils from Cinnamomum reticulatum Hay, Leptospermum petersonii Bailey, and Juniperus formosana Hayata

Essential oils (EOs) are one type of the most significant plant metabolites. Limited works have been conducted on EOs extracted from Cinnamomum reticulatum Hay (CREO), Leptospermum petersonii Bailey (LPEO), and Juniperus formosana Hayata (JFEO), which belong to the Lauraceae, Cupressaceae, and Myrtaceae families, respectively. The present work aimed to characterize and compare EOs chemical compositions of the three aromatic plant species and simultaneously evaluate their antioxidant activities. Using GC–MS/MS techniques, totally 135 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) belonging to nine chemical classes were detected, with 93, 102 and 116 VOCs from and 7, 8 and 16 VOCs unique to CREO, LPEO and JFEO, respecively, and 72 VOCs common to all the three EOs. The main compound identified both in LPEO and JFEO was (−)-bornyl acetate (20.23% and 28.40%, respectively), and the dominated compounds in CREO were L-α-terpineol (16.21%) and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,6-dimethyl-4-(1-methylethyl)naphthalene (11.68%), all accounting for more than 20% of their total contents. An in-depth dissection of major chemical compositions of the three EOs found that three VOCs were newly identified and biological functions of four VOCs were not yet reported previously. In addition, higher antioxidant capacities, measured with DPPH and ABTS assays, were exhibited in JFEO (IC50 8.37 ± 2.98 and 0.53 ± 3.80 mg/ml, respectively) and in LPEO (IC50 13.93 ± 2.11 and 1.32 ± 0.97 mg/ml) than in CREO (IC50 250.58 ± 1.48 and 4.81 ± 3.23 mg/ml), which may be due to CREO contained more esters and less aromatics than the other two EOs.