The chemical composition of the essential oils of the leaves, bark and wood of Ocotea gomezii and O. morae from Costa Rica, were analyzed by capillary GC-FID and GC-MS. The oils of O. gomezii were predominantly composed by sesquiterpenoids whereas the oils of O. morae had both monoterpenoids and sesquiterpenoids. Analysis by GC/MS and GC/FID resulted in the identification of 166 compounds, representing about 89.4"98.1% of the total oils. When we compared the effect of the oils on cell lines (CCF-STTG1, Hep3B, HepG2, H-460, AGS, N-87, SW-620 and MCF-7 and VERO), we found that astrocytoma cells were the most resistant ones. We conclude that the essential oils of Ocotea gomezii and Ocotea morae could have some toxic compounds, but the potential use of them against the tumor cells would be very low, since they could be toxic to tumor and non-tumor cells in the same extent.
Ocotea gomezii; O. morae; Lauraceae; essential oils; cytotoxicity
