Chemical composition of essential oil of Melissa officinalis L. and antioxidant activity from Boa Vista-RR, Brazil

In this work, the chemical composition of the essential oil of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) was determined by CG-FID.In the essential oil of M. officinalis,there area total of 22 chemical constituents, among them are geranial (34.6%), neral (26.0%), γ-caryophyllene (7.5%), caryophyllene oxide (5.3%), -pinene (5.3%) and sabinene (3.6%); it also has antioxidant capacity and total phenolic compounds in vitro. The concentration of total phenolic compounds was 61.71 mgEAG g-1 for the essential oil and 7.81 mgEAG g-1 for the aqueous extract respectively. The inhibition percentage tested by different DPPP concentrations of 8, 20, 40 and 80 µg mL-1 was 17.12, 31.04, 48.24 and 68.12% respectively and the quercetin standard was used as a positive control. Key words: Limon herb, Folin-Ciocateau, DPPH, medicinal plant.