Keywords: Piper betle; essential oil; antibacterial; ADME; drug-likeness

Abstract

This study aims to determine the chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oil of Piper betle leaf and predict the physicochemical and ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) properties of the major compounds found from the oil. The essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation technique and analysed using gas chromatography-flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The antibacterial activity was screened using the disc diffusion method, while the physicochemical and ADME properties were predicted using the SwissADME web tool. Thirty-eight compounds were successfully identified, representing 94.1% of the total oil. Eugenol (18.9%), germacrene D (11.6%), chavibetol acetate (9.3%), β-caryophyllene (7.4%), and bicyclogermacrene (7.3%) were identified as the main compounds in the essential oil. The P. betle oil gave the diameter of inhibition zones against all tested bacteria in the range between 7.00 and 12.67 mm, with the largest inhibition zone observed for B. cereus (12.67 mm). The ADME studies revealed that eugenol and chavibetol acetate exhibited good drug-likeness properties by passing Lipinski’s rule of five. These findings lead us to consider both compounds as a potential scaffold for enhancing antibacterial activity.