Antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of Diospyros lotus L. essential oil with supercritical fluid extraction

Diospyros lotus L., which belongs to the Ebenaceae family, is used in folk medicine for treating anemia, fatigue, insomnia, and hepatitis. In the present study, supercritical CO₂ fluid extraction (SFE) was used to extract Diospyros lotus L. essential oil, and its antioxidant, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic activities were investigated. The chemical composition of the essential oil was investigated using GC/MS. The antioxidant capacity was evaluated via 1,1diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and hydroxyl radical scavenging. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using the broth microdilution method was applied to investigate antimicrobial activities. The cytotoxic activity of the essential oil was measured using a standard 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The GC–MS analysis showed that Diospyros lotus L essential oil contained 25 components, mainly including 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (50.90%), 2-methylhexadecan-1-ol (19.97%), 2-cis-9-octadecenyloxyethanol (5.46%), dibutyl phthalate (4.84%), and n-hexadecanoic acid (4.20%). The IC₅₀ values of the essential oil in the DPPH assay and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity were 46.46 ± 1.70 μg/mL and 0.551 ± 0.0267 mg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, at concentrations below 50 μg/mL, the evaluation of cell viability showed no cytotoxicity in the human embryonic kidney cell line 293T. The results show that Diospyros lotus L. essential oil has antimicrobial and antioxidant effects, and has no toxicity on 293T cells at low concentrations, indicating potential health benefits.