RESUMO
ABSTRACT This paper describes the chemical composition and the enantiomer content of the volatile oil hydrodistilled from Clinopodium brownei (Sw.) Kuntze, Lamiaceae. The plant was collected in the South of Ecuador. Thirty one components were identified by GC-MS, which accounted for the 96.15% of the volatile oil. The major components were pulegone (48.44%), menthone (34.55%) and β-acorenol (3.41%). Oxygenated monoterpenes (86.06%), followed by oxygenated sesquiterpenes (5.36%) constituted the most abundant fractions. The enantiomeric compositions of β-pinene, sabinene, 3-octanol, menthone, pulegone and menthyl acetate were determined by enantioselective GC-MS. (-)-Menthone showed the highest enantiomeric excess (ee = 83.4%). In in vitro tests, the volatile oil showed high selective inhibitory activity for butyrylcholinesterase with an IC50, 13.4 ± 1.8 µg/ml. In contrast, it was weakly active against acetylcholinesterase with an IC50 >250 µg/ml.