RESUMO
The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from leaves of Anaxagorea brevipes was analysed by gas chromatography fitted with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Thirty one components were identified, representing around 75.7% of total oil. The major components were ß-eudesmol (13.16%), α-eudesmol (13.05%), γ-eudesmol (7.54%), guaiol (5.12%), caryophyllene oxide (4.18%) and ß-bisabolene (4.10%). The essential oil showed antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and yeast with the MIC values between 25.0 and 100 µg/mL. The highest antiproliferative activity was observed for the oil against MCF-7 (breast, TGI = 12.8 µg/mL), NCI-H460 (lung, TGI = 13.0 µg/mL) and PC-3 (prostate, TGI = 9.6 µg/mL) cell lines, while against no cancer cell line HaCat (keratinocyte) the TGI was 38.8 µg/mL. The oil exhibited a small antioxidant activity assessed through ORAC-FL assay (517 µmol TE/g). This is the first report regarding the chemical composition and bioactivity of A. brevipes essential oil.