Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oil of Ocimum basilicum Leaves from the Northern Region of Algeria

Ocimum basilicum essential oil (Algerian species), which is extracted from dried leaves with an output of 1.98 ± 0.01%, is yellow pale. Its chemical composition has been investigated by GC/MS and GC/FID.
Fourty compounds have been identified accounting for 97.4%. The major compounds were: Linalool (32.83%), linalyl acetate (16%), elemol (7.44%), geranyl acetate (6.18%), myrcene (6.12%), allo-ocimene (5.02%), α-terpineol (4.9%), (E)-β-ocimene (3.68%) and neryl acetate (3.45%). O. basilicum essential oil was screened for its in vitro antioxidant activity using DPPH assay. The results showed that the concentration of the essential oil needed to scavenge 50% of DPPH, was 83.54 mg/ml lower than that of vitamin E (22.0 mg/ml) and therefore acts as a natural antioxidant agent.