Chemical composition, herbicidal, antifeedant and cytotoxic activity of Hedychium spicatum Sm.: A Zingiberaceae herb

Essential oils have been used traditionally as herbal medicine in various ailments and can be used as a strong alternative to chemical pesticides. The yield of essential oil from Hedychium spicatum Sm. was 0.9 mg kg−1 regarding its fresh weight. The essential oil was then subjected to column chromatography for separation into polar ethyl acetate and non-polar hexane fractions. The chemical composition of hexane and ethyl acetate column fraction were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In the present investigation, the marked effect of anticancer activity from hexane and ethyl acetate fraction of oil of H. spicatum Sm. rhizomes on A431 and MCF cell lines was assessed through micro-culture tetrazolium assay (MTT). The test samples were screened for cytotoxicity against the cell lines at different concentrations of 50, 100, 150 and 200 μL to determine the IC50 value. The hexane and ethyl acetate fractions were screened for their herbicidal activities against Raphanus raphanistrum and also assessed for the feeding performance of Spilosoma obliqua in the laboratory. For antifeedant activity, the antifeedant index calculated over 36 h for neonate larvae increased significantly with concentration in the treated diet. The sprout inhibition activity on Raphanus raphanistrum was studied using petri dish bioassay. The root and shoot length were measured for each concentration after evaluating the activity for 5 days. Based on all the observations, the results indicate that the different fractions of essential oil contain phytotoxic compounds that could be used to develop botanical pesticide and also in the field of cancer drug development.