Abstract

The aim of the present study is to identify the essential compounds of the methanol extract of Syzygium aromaticum(cloves). From the previous study ‘Comparitive studies of antidandruff activity of Syzygium aromaticum and Zingiber officinale’ we have opted  the methanol extract of Syzygium aromaticum for GC-MS study from among ethyl acetate and hexane extracts since a high range of antidandruff activity was exhibited in the methanol extract. The methanol extract of Syzygium aromaticum was extracted using Eloff’s method. The extract was analyzed by GC-MS using a Hewlett Packard 5890 II GC, equipped with a HP-5 MS capillary column and a HP 5972 mass selective detector. GCMS analysis of the methanol extract of Syzygium aromaticum revealed 5 active compounds of which the compound with the highest retention time 12.52 was identified as Cyclohexane, 1, 1’-dodecylidenebis.This compound may be found to exhibit an effective antidandruff effect.