Bioactive Constituents of Essential Oil from Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) Bark Extracts

The use of plants in traditional medicines has been a common practice in the medical care of many human cultures and dates back to several thousands of years and pre-dates the introduction of antibiotics and other related drugs due to their great source of phytochemicals which are exploited in all medical systems. These study was aimed at characterizing using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) technique, the chemical constituents of the essential oil extracted from the bark of Khaya senegalensis Desr. using methanol-chloroform. Eight compounds were identified which include: Sulfurous acid, decylpentyl ester (0.51%), n-Hexadecanoic acid (12.08%), 1-Pentadecanol (1.84%), 13,16-Octadecadienoic acid, methyl ester (1.71%), Oleic acid (39.16%), Octadecanoic acid (21.9%), Dodecanoyl chloride (3.93%) and cis-11-hexadecenal (18.88%). The presence of these compounds in the the bark of Khaya senegalensis might amongst many other bioactive constituents are responsible for the medicinal properties these plant part exhibits and is been used for in herbal medicines