The essential oils of Chloranthus spicatus flowers from shade drying and oven dried samples were isolated by water-steam distillation and analyzed by GC-MS.Furthermore,the antioxidant activity of volatile oil was examined using various antioxidant assays,such as 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azinobis-3-ethylbenzthiazo-line-6-sulphonate acid (ABTS) free radical scavenging assays.The volatile oil was also evaluated for antimicrobial activity by paper disc diffusion method.This study also evaluated the tyrosinase inhibitory activity of the essential oils extrated from C. spicatus flowers.The results indicated that 62 major components were identified in the essential oils from 2 different drying methods,among them,essential oils from oven dried samples identified 58 components in which the relative contents of dilute hydrocarbon were the highest,and 56 components in essential oils were identified from shade drying samples,in which the relative contents of dilute hydrocarbon were also the highest.There were 52 components in both essential oils.The antioxidant activity of essential oils from 2 different drying methods was in order of oven dried >shade drying,and the essential oils had broad-spectrum antibacterial property.The essential oils from the oven dried samples had better inhibitory effect against mushroom tyrosinase,which indicated it had potential value in developing skin whitening product.In general,oven dried is the better method to treat the flowers of C. spicatus for extracting essential oils.

"> essential oils from flowers of C. spicatus, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS), antioxidant, antibacterial, tyrosinase, inhibitory effect