CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF EQUISETUM DIFFUSUM: A NOBLE SOURCE OF PHYTOL

Plants as a source of medicine have been inherited and are an important component of the health care system in India. Equisetum diffusum D. Don (Equisetaceae) is one of the medicinally important plants, which is a native species to the Himalayan Mountains. It is popularly known as Himalayan horsetail. The present endeavor deals with the exploration of the chemical composition of Himalayan E. diffusum. The chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from aerial parts of E. diffusum was analyzed, for the first time, by GC–FID and GC–MS. A total of 52 compounds were identified, constituting over 93.54% of oil composition. The oil was strongly characterised by phytol (35.63%), in addition to hexacosane (8.04%), cadin-4-ene-7-ol (cis) (5.32%), n-decane (3.31%), heptacosane (2.92%), and phytone (2.95%), bisabolol-epi-α (2.6%), 4-heptanone-2-methyl (2.24%), n-nonane (2.24%) and octacosane (2.05%) as the main components. High phytol content with other major constituents reported here, provide initial evidence of a new and alternative source of substances with medicinal interest. Furthermore, identification and purification of the active compounds responsible for the therapeutic activity may prove the plant of great pharmacological importance.