Plants of the genus Pandanus are prevalent in tropical areas, especially on the pacific islands, Malaysian islands and Australia. The leaf extract is used as a food flavour additive in India and the roots are used in folk medicine to cure thyroid problems and treat fever in Taiwan. Many fragrant essential oils, including monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, were isolated from P. latifolius [1] and several alkaloids were found in P. amaryllifolius [2]. Fatty acid contents of the fruit of P. conoideus were analyzed by Southwell [3]. Also, it has recently been reported that the root extract of P. odorus shows a strong hypoglycaemic e ect [4].
Pandanus odoratissimus flourishes in southern Taiwan and its MeOH extract shows great antioxidative activity in our continuing study of the crude drugs used in Taiwan. We herein report its chemical components and their activities.