Antioxidant, free radical scavenging and GC–MS composition of Cinnamomum iners Reinw. ex Blume

• To identify the natural antioxidants to potentially replace the chemically synthesized antioxidants (BHT and BHA) is of great importance.
• The present study was conducted to explicit antioxidant and free radical scavenging potency of the methanolic leaf extract of Cinnamomum iners (a wild Cinnamon) and screening the chemical composition using GC–MS.
• The study proved, that the plant Cinnamomum iners can be potentially used as an alternate for BHA and BHT in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.

The present study was conducted to explicit antioxidant and free radical scavenging potency of the methanolic leaf extract of Cinnamomum iners and screen the chemical composition using GC–MS. The total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and total anti-oxidant content of C. iners were 7.434 ± 0.04 mg TAE/g DW, 3.2 ± 0.12 μg QE/g DW and 119.412 ± 0.39 mg TAE/g DW, respectively. DPPH free radical scavenging activity of methanolic leaf extract recorded the IC50 value at the concentration of 15 μg/ml. Among various antioxidant assays performed, maximum inhibition occurred in ABTS assay (99.36%) followed by TBA (95.39%) and FTC (81.37%). A total of six compounds, i.e., 4-piperidineacetic acid, 1-acetyl-5-ethyl-2-[3-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1H-indol-2-yl]-a-methyl-methyl ester; pentadecanoic acid, 14-methyl-, methyl ester; 10-octadecenoic acid, methyl ester; cyclopropanebutanoic acid, 2-[[2-[[2-[(pentylcyclopropyl) methyl]cyclopropyl]methyl]cyclopropyl]methyl]-, methyl ester; cyclopentaneundecanoic acid, methyl ester; and oxiraneundecanoic acid, 3-pentyl-, methyl ester, cis- was detected using GC–MS. The study proves that the plant can be potentially used as an antioxidant agent in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.