| Extracts from plants have been utilized for centuries in a diverse fashion to treat maladies ranging from the common cold to cancer, as dressings for wounds, and as fertility enhancers, among other things. The perception of plants as potent medicines provided the focus of this research. To that end, the leaf essential oils of Lantana involucrata, Amyris elemifera, Eugenia axillaris, Eugenia confusa, Myrica cerifera, Canella winterana, Calyptranthes pallens, and Psidium longipes, eight medicinal plants from Grand Abaco Island in the Bahamas, were characterized by GC-MS. The essential oils were found to be composed mostly of terpenes, with trace amounts of phenylpropanoids and simple hydrocarbons also present. Following characterization by GC-MS, the oil and its major constituents were assayed for antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity against a panel of bacterial, fungal, and tumor cell lines. |
