Compositional variations and anthelmentic activity of essential oils from rhizomes of different wild populations of Acorus calamus L. and its major component, beta-Asarone.

Hydro-distilled essential oils from Acorus calamus rhizomes collected from six different geographical zones in the northwest Himalayan region of Uttarakhand have been analyzed by GC and GC/MS. All the oils differed in their qualitative and quantitative make up, although beta-asarone was the major constituent of all of them. The essential oils and the isolated beta-asarone were screened for anthelmintic activity using contractility of Ascaridia galli. beta-Asarone, in particular, showed potent activity with IC50 values of 75.4 +/- 61.8 ng/mL.