GC-MS analysis and antioxidant activity of volatile component in Moringa oleifera Lam. seed shell from different origins.

In this paper, petroleum ether extracts were obtained from Moringa oleifera Lam. seed shell of five different origins using ultrasound-assisted technique. The volatile components in these samples were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the fingerprints of these samples were established. A total of 18 volatile components were selected as characteristic components to distinguish the origins and to evaluate the quality with principal component analysis (PCA) based on their contents. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was employed to differentiate the main differential volatile markers in these samples. The antioxidant activity of the volatile components was evaluated according to the scavenging capacities against DPPH and ABTS radicals, as well as ferric reducing power in vitro. Three principal components (PC) with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 94.123% shows that these PC can effectively distinguish these samples from origins. Due to the different geographical discrimination, the volatile components of M. oleifera seed from Gujarāt are characteristic of the abundance of aldehydes and alkanes, those from Ondo State are characteristic of the abundance of ketones and esters, and those from China are characteristic of the medium content of piperazines and alkanes. The volatile components in Honghe sample exhibits the prominent antioxidant activity in vitro, which highlights its potential as high-activity natural product for development.