Evaluation of phytochemical and antioxidant properties of Matricaria chamomilla L. essential oil with ultrasound and water distillation

Secondary metabolites in chamomile flower essential oil are widely used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and health industries due to their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-bacterial effects. In this study, for comparative evaluation of phytochemical and antioxidant properties of Matricaria chamomilla L. flower essential oil, plant flowers were harvested from the research farm of Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran and after matching the plant with herbarium samples in the herbarium section of the institute were completely dried. Essential oil extraction was performed by two different methods of distillation with water and ultrasonic method.. The most important effective compounds of essential oils were evaluated using GC and GC / MC devices. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was also evaluated using the DPPH method. The results showed that by simultaneously application of ultrasound (0.1%) and water distillation methods (0.05%), the essential oil of this plant was obtained with higher efficiency. In the water distillation method, the most important secondary components of the essential oil including: alpha-bisabolone 66.08% and camazoline 6.46% were obtained, while in the method coupled with ultrasound, the amount of alpha-bisabolone the amount of alpha-bisaboline increased up to twice and camazoline up to 17.23%. In both methods, the main compounds: camazoline and bisabolol were optimally identified and determined using the proposed method as an efficient application method to separate the most important secondary pharmaceutical compounds of essential oil from chamomile samples.