Evaluation of bioactive metabolites, quality analysis and antimicrobial efficacy of essential oil of offered leaves of Aegle marmelos collected from different places of worship

Aegle marmelos commonly known as the ‘Bael tree’ or ‘Bengal quince’, also termed as ‘Wood Apple’ or ‘Stone Apple’ belonging to the family Rutaceae. As per Hindu mythology, the leaves of the bael are generally offered to the lord Shiva. They are deliberately grown in the vicinity of Lord Shiva’s temples. Its leaves have a long history of use in ayurvedic medicinal system. The primary goal of this study was to assess the utilization of waste leaves, extract essential oils, characterized them, and evaluate their quality for systematic application. Additionally, the research was focused on examining the phyto-chemical composition, bioactivity of oils. The offered leaves from temples were collected and subjected to hydro-distillation in order to estimate the oil yield. An average yield of essential oil was appraised to be 0.69018. The essential oil extracted from the leaves collected from six different regions was subjected to anti-microbial and chromatographic analysis. The oil derived demonstrated potential antimicrobial properties when the efficacy was assessed against various Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria, and yeast. The data obtained from GC, GC/MS revealed limonene as the major constituent present in the oil. Limonene exhibits diverse phyto-chemical and pharmacological properties which highlight its importance in safeguarding human, animal health, against pathogenic spoilage.