Antioxidant activities of essential oil of Bidens pilosa (Linn. Var. Radita) used for the preservation of food qualities in North Cameroon

This study aimed to determine the total antioxidant capacity of the essential oil (EO) of leaves of Bidens pilosa (Linn. Var. Radita) used as protectant of stored grains in Northern Cameroon. EO was characterized by GC‐FID, antioxidant activity (AA) was determined by combining: evaluation of radical‐scavenging activity, reducing power (RP) and co‐oxidation of β‐carotene methods. Tests were carried out on crude and stored EO kept for two weeks at 31.48 ± 2.88°C and 58.56 ± 6.78% relative humidity. These conditions are the same as those of grain storage. GC analyses enabled the identification of 27 compounds, representing around 97.57% of the total oil contents. The major constituents of the EO were α‐pinene (14.7%), ε‐caryophyllene (13.5), and β‐ocimene (12.8%). The AA of the crude and stored EO are proportional to the concentrations and time of exposition. Exposed at the day light, this EO inhibit 77.4–18.69% for the DPPH system, 59.55–19.14% for RP method and 91.88–21.8% for β‐carotene‐linoleate model system, respectively, from crude and 15 days storage EO at 20 mg L−1. For the EC50 values, β‐carotene method is excellent and in the decreasing order of DPPH method, PR with 2.52 mg L−1, 2.77 mg L−1 and 4.13 mg L−1, respectively, for the crude oil. The ET50 were 1.59 days for the RP method and 2.88 days DPPH system and β‐carotene‐linoleate model system at 20 mg L−1. These results showed that the EO of B. pilosa leaves exhibits AA that might be an added value for this EO preventing stored products from pest attacks. The essential oil B. pilosa leaves exhibited different levels of antioxidant activity during two weeks of storage at room condition in all the models studied. The results from various free radical‐scavenging systems revealed that B. pilosa had significant (P