ABSTRACT

Since ancient times, people have valued spices and herbs for their therapeutic powers. Spices are still being researched for their volatile oils (essential), flavor, and potential treatment of many chronic conditions.

The aim of this study was to ascertain the quality of the fixed oil and volatile oils of Aframomum sceptrum and Monodora myristica.

Physicochemical analysis can be used as a means of assessing product purity and authenticity which can give a basis for identifying adulteration in products.

In the current work, we examined the fixed oils (non-volatile) and volatile oils from two different spices including Aframomum sceptrum and Monodora myristica for their physicochemical properties and chemical composition using Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

The results derived from the saponification  value of the fixed oil showed that Monodora myristica (157.67±4.31) is better suited for soap making and has more short chain, lower molecular  weight fatty acids than Aframomum sceptrum (67.58±10.23). The fixed and volatile oils of both spice seeds which have been reported to have some medicinal uses were subjected to GC-MS analysis and revealed certain compounds which could be responsible for those reported medicinal uses. Monodora myristica fixed oil was revealed to contain 72 compounds, Ethyl 9,12-hexadecadienoate (56.58%) was revealed to have the highest concentration followed by 9-Octadecenoic acid, (E)- (15.66%) and then pentadecanoic acid (4.32%).

The GC-MS analysis of Aframomum  sceptrum identified the presence of 32 compounds in the volatile oil. (+)-4-Carene was identified as the compound with the highest amount with 57.37% followed by L-.alpha.-Terpineol, with an amount of 13.86% and the alpha.-Phellandrene with 4.09%.