Comparative study of the metabolic composition and antioxidant capacity of eucalyptus species grown in Anatolia

This study focused on the biochemical composition in dried leaves of six Eucalyptus species and a hybrid cultivated. The species are Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. globulus, E. tereticornis, E. botryoides, E. grandis, Corymbia citriodora (Syn. E. citriodora) and E. camaldulensis X E. grandis hybrid. Total soluble phenolic contents were determined to vary between 48.5 and 26.7 mg GAE g-1. Both total antioxidant capacity and cupric ion-reducing antioxidant capacity were high in E. botrioides (134.3 mg AAE g-1 and 40.6 mg GAE g-1) While the superoxide generation rate (SGR) was low and H2O2 was high in E. camaldulensis x grandis hybrid with high SOD activity, SGR and H2O2 ratios were found to be close to each other in E. tereticornis species with low SOD activity. The differences observed in the biochemical composition of Eucalyptus species grown in similar climatic and soil conditions indicate the importance of genetic diversity.