Antioxidant and repellent activities of the essential oil from Colombian Triphasia trifolia (Burm. f.) P. Wilson.

The chemical composition of essential oils isolated from aerial parts of Triphasia trifolia (Burm. f.) P. Wilson was analyzed using hydrodistillation by GC-MS. The main constituents found were ß-pinene (64.36%), (+)-sabinene (8.75%), hexadecanoic acid (6.03%), α-limonene (4.24%) and p-cymene (2.73%). The essential oil from T. trifolia shows high antioxidant potential (94.53%), an effect that is comparable with ascorbic acid (96.40%), used as standard. In addition, these oils had high repellent effects on the insect Tribolium castaneum Herbst (99% ± 1) at 0.2 µL/cm(2) after 2 h of exposure.