Search

Plants of the genus Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) are widely distributed in most tropical and subtropical countries. They have been used as folk medicine in some countries for thousands of years in the treatment of many diseases, such as disturbances of the kidney and urinary bladder, intestinal infections, diabetes, and the hepatitis B virus [1, 2]. The water extract of Phyllanthus niriru Linn possesses many bioactivities such as stomachic, aperitive, antispasmodic, laxative, diuretic, and carminative properties, and against constipation, fever, malaria, hepatitis B, dysentery, gonorrhea, syphilis, tuberculosis, cough, diarrhea, and vaginitis [3-7]. Phyllanthus urinaria Linn (P. urinaria) is particularly used as a diuretic and for liver protection, diabetes, hepatitis, jaundice, dropsy, and dysentery [8-10]. The bioactivity and chemical composition of Phyllanthus arenarius beille have not yet been reported. All of these plants are distributed in Guangxi and other provinces in China [11]. In past decades, due to interest in the bioactivities of genus Phyllanthus, many investigations on the chemical composition of P. niriru and P. urinaria have been reported. Many compounds, such as flavonoids, lignans, alkaloids, and tannins, have been isolated from P. urinaria [12-14], and alkaloids, flavonoids, lignans, tannins, phenols, and terpenes from P. niriru [15-19]. The essential oil composition of the three plants has not been reported. We wish to report the composition of the essential oils from P. niriru, P. urinaria, and P. arenarius in this paper. The essential oils of these plants were extracted by steam distillation, and then their compositions were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The composition of the essential oils from the three plants is shown in Table 1. Forty-three compounds were detected in the oil sample obtained from P. arenarius, 44 compounds from P. urinaria, and 50 from P. niruri.