Antioxidant Capacity and Cytotoxicity of Essential Oil and Methanol Extract of Aniba canelilla (H.B.K.) Mez

The leaves and fine stems, bark, and trunk wood oils of Aniba canelilla showed yields ranging from 0.2 to 1.3%. The main volatile constituent identified in the oils was 1-nitro-2-phenylethane (70.2–92.1%), as expected. The mean of DPPH radical scavenging activity (EC50) of the oils (198.17 ± 1.95 µg mL−1) was low in comparison with that of wood methanol extracts (4.41 ± 0.12 µg mL−1), the value of which was equivalent to that of Trolox (4.67 ± 0.35 µg mL−1), used as antioxidant standard. The mean amount of total phenolics (TP) (710.53 ± 23.16 mg of GAE/g) and this value calculated as Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) (899.50 ± 6.50 mg of TE/g) of the wood methanol extracts confirmed the high antioxidant activity of the species. On the other hand, in the brine shrimp bioassay the values of lethal concentration (LC50) for the oils (21.61 ± 1.21 µg mL−1) and 1-nitro-2-phenylethane (20.37 ± 0.99 µg mL−1) were lower than that of the wood methanol extracts (91.38 ± 7.20 µg mL−1), showing significant biological activities.