Ocotea quixos essential oil: A systematic review about the ethno-medicinal uses, phytochemistry and biological activity.

In the Ecuadorian Amazon region, Ocotea quixos is a well-known as well as an important plant used as a spice and as folk medicine ingredient. Besides the traditional knowledge, only a few bioprospecting and pharmacological experiments have been carried out and some promising findings have been done. Essential oil from calices (OQCO) and from leaves (OQLO) have been investigated furthermore showing a remarkable difference. In the case of floral calyx oil the main components were trans-cinnamaldehyde and methylcinnamate while the leaves essential oil presented β-caryophyllene, cinnamyl acetate, sabinene, geranial and finally trans-cinnamaldehyde. Both essential oils have shown to possess useful biological activities, as antiplatelet, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antifungal and antimicrobial activities. These findings open new research prospects and promising applications as functional fragrances for both oils.