Application as cosmetic bioactives of phytochemicals extracted from the post distillation biomass of geranium

Abstract

Pelargonium graveolens commonly known as geranium crop has received attention by essential oil manufacturers. Geranium plant is propagated using plant tissue culture followed by its cultivation in the fields. Geranium oil extraction creates a large amount of post distilled geranium biomass (PDGB). The present study utilized this unexplored PDGB for extraction of antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase, and antimicrobial constituents for cosmetic applications and determining the extract’s safety. The PDGB of methanol extract and ethyl acetate extract exhibited good qualitative phytochemical profiles. Antimicrobial activity was found to be absent in both extracts. Ethyl acetate extract of PDGB exhibited the highest antioxidant activity in terms of DPPH free radical scavenging and tyrosinase inhibition. The IC50 for ethyl acetate extract and methanol extract were found to be 0.188 and 0.201 mg/ml, whereas for GO it was found to be 77.49 mg/ml. The tyrosinase inhibition was found to be significantly higher (p<0.01) for ethyl acetate (0.97mg/ml) and methanol (1.0 mg/ml) than for GO (7.44 mg/ml). Similarly, both the extracts and GO exhibited less toxicity or maximum cell viability on 3T3 fibroblast cell lines ATCC 1658 indicating suitability of PDGB extracts for cosmetics application and an additional revenue model for oil extracting farmers.

Keywords

• pelargonium graveolens
• post distillation geranium biomass
• antioxidant activity
• dpph
• tyrosinase inhibition
• cytotoxicity
• antimicrobial activity