The antimicrobial activity of wood vinegar from Dimocarpus longan was determined in this
study. For this, the antimicrobial activity was evaluated against 14 bacterial and 6 fungal strains
using an agar well diffusion assay. It was observed that the longan wood vinegar exhibited antibacterial
activity against all bacterial strains tested. However, the wood vinegar only showed
an inhibitory activity against one fungus which was the yeast Candida albicans. In addition,
a preliminary characterisation of the chemical compositions of the longan wood vinegar was
made by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 6 chemical compounds
were identified, representing ca. 60% of the compositions in the wood vinegar. Three major
components including 9-octadecenoic acid (oleic acid, 24.56%), n-hexadecanoic acid (palmitic
acid, 24.33%), and tetradecanoic acid (myristic acid, 7.16%), were found in the wood vinegar.