Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Aug 30;21(9):1150.
doi: 10.3390/molecules21091150.

Chemical Composition, Antioxidant, and Antibacterial Activity of Wood Vinegar from Litchi chinensis

Jyh-Ferng Yang  1 , Cheng-Hong Yang  2 , Ming-Tsai Liang  3 , Zi-Jie Gao  4 , Yuh-Wern Wu  5 , Li-Yeh Chuang  6
Affiliations

Chemical Composition, Antioxidant, and Antibacterial Activity of Wood Vinegar from Litchi chinensis

Jyh-Ferng Yang et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

The antioxidant and antibacterial activities of wood vinegar from Litchi chinensis, and its components have been studied. The chemical compositions of wood vinegar were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 17 chemical compounds were identified, representing 83.96% of the compositions in the wood vinegar. Three major components, included 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (syringol, 29.54%), 2-methoxyphenol (guaiacol, 12.36%), and 3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxytoluene (11.07%), were found in the wood vinegar. Antioxidant activities of the acids were investigated from the aspects of 1,1-Diphyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals scavenging capacity, superoxide anion radical scavenging capacity, and reducing power. The pyroligneous acid exhibited high antioxidant activity which was comparable to the reference standards (vitamin C and butylated hydroxyl toluene) at the same dose with IC50 values of 36.5 ppm calculated by the DPPH radical scavenging assay, 38.38 g Trolox equivalent/100 g DW by the trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assay, and 67.9 by the reducing power analysis. Antibacterial activity was evaluated using the disc diffusion and microdilution methods against a group of clinically antibiotic resistant isolates. The major components exhibited broad spectrum inhibition against all the bacterial strains with a range of disc inhibition zoon between 15-19 mm. The minimum inhibition concentration and minimum bactericide concentration against the test strains was ranging in 0.95-3.80 μL/100 μL and 1.90-3.80 μL/100 μL, respectively. Most of the antibiotic resistant strains were more susceptible to the wood vinegar than the non-antibiotic resistant strain except the strain of ornithine resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Based on the chemical profile, it was considered that the strongest antioxidant and antibacterial activity of Litchi chinensis wood vinegar was due to its highly phenolic compositions. This study revealed that the Litchi chinensis wood vinegar is valuable to develop as alternative food antioxidant and antibiotics.

Keywords: Litchi chinensis wood vinegar; antibacterial activity; antioxidant activity; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
GC-MS analysis of the chemical constituents of the wood vinegar.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Three major components of the wood vinegar.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Molecular structures of lignin units.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Molecular structures of the phenol compounds from the wood vinegar (a) syringol-type; (b) guaiacol-type; and (c) benzenediol-type.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Amen-Chen C., Pakdel H., Roy C. Separation of phenols from Eucalyptus wood tar. Biomass Bioenerg. 1977;13:25–37.
    1. Pimenta A.S., Bayana J.M., Garcia M.T., Splanas A.M. Evaluation of acute toxicity and genotoxicity of liquid products from pyrolysis of Eucalyptus grandis wood. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxic. 2000;38:169–175. - PubMed
    1. Guillen M.D., Manzanos M.J. Study of the volatile composition of an aqueous oak smoke preparation. Food Chem. 2002;79:283–292.
    1. Mu J., Uehara T., Furuno T. Effect of bamboo vinegar on regulation of germination and radicle growth of seed plants II: Composition of moso bamboo vinegar at different collection temperature and its effects. J. Wood Sci. 2004;50:470–476.
    1. Loo A.Y., Jain K., Darah I. Antioxidant and radical scavenging activities of the pyroligneous acid from a mangrove plant, Rhizophora apiculate. Food Chem. 2007;104:300–307.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources